


Lest faith turn to despair:  Act IV - Saturday

by If_all_the_world_and_love_were_young



Series: Lest faith turn to despair [5]
Category: Young Americans (TV)
Genre: Boarding School, Criticism, Drama, F/M, Literary References & Allusions, Multi, Poetry, Pop Culture, Rawley Academy, Rebirth/rejuvenation, Sexual Content, Surreal, Teen Romance, True Love, Unofficial Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-11-25
Updated: 2000-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:33:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 24
Words: 58,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/If_all_the_world_and_love_were_young/pseuds/If_all_the_world_and_love_were_young
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/89848">Lest faith turn to despair</a></em> is a critical appreciation, in the form of a fanfiction sequel, of Steven Antin’s <em>Young Americans</em> (Columbia TriStar & Mandalay Television for The WB network, 2000), a dramatic essay in philosophy of love.</p>
<p><strong>Synopsis</strong>:  The original drama’s “true love” story affects that drama’s other characters.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/89848">Lest faith turn to despair</a></em> is a drama in five acts, plus <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438123/chapters/3025873">prologue</a>, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3034030">intermezzo</a>, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438567/chapters/3035860">envoi</a> and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1437208">notes</a>.  Each act, like the intermezzo, covers one of six consecutive days around the Thanksgiving following the original drama.  Due to its length, it is posted on <em>Archive of Our Own</em> as a series of six works, with the notes as a separate work.</p>
<p>All sexually active characters are above the legal age of consent in the setting place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Frontispiece

The original drama,  _Young Americans_ , may be viewed online [here](http://www.youtube.com/user/IckyGrub).  Antin’s public comments on it may be read  [here](https://sites.google.com/site/rawleyrevisited/antin-on-ya).

 

 

Love is strong as death, passion unyielding as the grave;

the flashes thereof are of fire, a very flame of the Lord.

– _Song of Song_ s 8:6

 

To be and to be seen to be thankful;

this is truly not only the greatest of the virtues,

but also the mother of all the rest.

– Cicero, _Pro Plancio_ xxxiii.

 

Stranger, dreams are very curious and unaccountable things, and they do not always come true.

There are two gates through which these unsubstantial fancies proceed;

one is of horn, the other of ivory. Those that come through the gate of ivory are fatuous,

but those from the gate of horn mean something.

– Penelope to the disguised Odysseus, _Odyssey_ xix

 

*       *       *


	2. Series Contents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Links to other parts of the drama, _[Lest faith turn to despair](http://archiveofourown.org/series/89848)_ , which, due to its length, is published on _Archive of Our Own_ as a series.

**[Series](http://archiveofourown.org/series/89848) Contents** :

[Notes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1437208): setting; _dramatis personae_ ; genre; allusions; obscenity; chronology.

[Prologue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438123/chapters/3025873)

[Act I - Tuesday](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438123)

[Act II - Wednesday](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438222)

[Act III - Thanksgiving Day](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438309)

[Intermezzo - Friday](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3034030)

[Act IV - Saturday](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438)

[Act V - Sunday](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438567)

[Envoi](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438567/chapters/3035860)

 

Each act of this drama has its own scene-specific table of contents.

 

Photo above is of Jake Pratt (Katherine Moennig, back to camera) and Hamilton Fleming (Ian Somerhalder, near table)

at the Rawley Academy summer cotillion, held in the Rawley Boys' common room, in episode 4 of _Young Americans_.

 

*       *       *


	3. Intermezzo - Friday

DIVERSE LOCATIONS, DAY 4 - FRIDAY

 

A series of eight dialogue-free visual shots fills the duration of Carl Orff’s “[Gassenhauer nach Hans Neusiedler](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ9_6W6bVoQ)“ (2:55 minutes). Sunshine, little wind, melting snow in all exterior shots.

EXT – MORNING. Aerial view of train approaching Boston on a winter morning, [skyline](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G2Oo0JAweTk/U0ZA7Anpw6I/AAAAAAAAAJA/AG1A3Nm7rI0/w439-h330-no/Boston+skyline+in+winter.png) in background.

INT – MORNING. A very crowded [Filene's Basement](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-T8YiDTUNMTQ/U0ZBGPJrVNI/AAAAAAAAAJU/KxEeRMoGuRE/w942-h563-no/Filene%2527s+Basement.png) in Boston. HAMILTON, wearing JAKE's empty red backpack and holding several garments already selected, helps JAKE quickly choose a dress. She grabs a half-length sleeveless black one-shoulder dress with a back open to below the shoulders. Loosened parkas, scarves, snowboots, jeans, sweaters.

EXT – MORNING. HAMILTON photographs JAKE feeding peanuts to a squirrel near the [Japanese Lantern](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3KTIC5GZPak/U0ZBWN_4zPI/AAAAAAAAAJo/4GU_WcByvVk/w387-h400-no/Japanese+Lantern%252C+Boston+Public+Garden.png) in Boston’s Public Garden. Loosened parkas, scarves, jeans, snowboots, gloves. Jake’s backpack, now full, on the snow.

EXT – MID-DAY. JAKE and HAMILTON skating on the [Frog Pond](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ePH8YPGxV4Y/U0ZB1ODIKJI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/RNvD2E8VR8I/w400-h273-no/Frog+Pond%252C+Boston+Common.png) in the Boston Common – she so much better than he that he stops skating and just watches. She returns to lead him, she skating backward, he forward. Sweaters, jeans, scarves, gloves.

EXT – AFTERNOON. HAMILTON and JAKE cross the Charles River on the [Weeks Footbridge](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-JFLzkD39bf0/U0ZB9_nXy8I/AAAAAAAAAKI/99tB5f2vLy4/s563-no/Weeks+Footbridge+in+Winter.png), with [Weld Boathouse](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-2EM90FWZzi4/U0ZCJmLIeyI/AAAAAAAAAKc/UZyAZdfije8/w450-h243-no/Weld+Boathouse+in+Winter.png) in the background. Her full backpack hangs from one of his shoulders. He removes one of his gloves, then one of hers, holds her ungloved hand. Loosened parkas, scarves, jeans, snowboots.

INT – AFTERNOON. The [Zebra Room](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hIXDAJqI3Gk/U0ZCee3uw_I/AAAAAAAAAKw/4IvETqJJoys/w840-h559-no/Zebra+Room+2.jpg) at “Upstairs on the Square” on Harvard Square. At a window table, JAKE in her new one-shoulder dress and a new set of black heels, finishes dining with HAMILTON. Given the bill, he quizzically slides it across the table to her; eyes narrowing, she pushes it back to him. No outerwear.

INT – EVENING. [Raven Used Books](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-b_SN8ECFc3c/U0ZDZIEvBjI/AAAAAAAAALY/yqb79FL1yLs/w400-h265-no/Raven+Used+Books%252C+Harvard+Squaare.jpg), Harvard Square. HAMILTON, already holding a book, pulls another book from a shelf; JAKE, now in a new white blouse, grey wool skirt, and black cardigan, looks through it, closes it, smiles, keeps it. Each puts an arm around the other as they move toward the cashier’s stand. Sweaters, snowboots, scarves.

INT – NIGHT. The FLEMING’S HOUSE, PARLOR. JAKE models for the Fleming family her new dress, set off by a black-and-white tie-on cord belt set to fall about the hips, and black heels. The DEAN casts a congratulatory glance at HAMILTON, and invites JAKE to dance. HAMILTON invites KATE. JAKE kicks off her heels, and all four waltz to Orff’s Gassenhauer.

 

*       *       *


	4. Contents of Act IV - Saturday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Links to the scenes of Act IV of [_Lest faith turn to despair_](http://archiveofourown.org/series/89848).
> 
> Each below-listed scene of Act IV is a chapter of this work.

**Act IV - Saturday**

     [Scene 1 – You’d better run](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3052432)

     [Scene 2 – Readying the candle](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3052822)

    [ Scene 3 - Red-hots](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3053728)

     [Scene 4 - Trying to take over the world](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3054049)

     [Scene 5 - Chariot of fire](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3054376)

     [Scene 6 - Training wheels](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3054547)

     [Scene 7 - Twelfth Night](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3054871)

    [ Scene 8 - Pot of gold](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3055138)

     [Scene 9 - There’s no success like failure](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3055474)

     [Scene 10 - Feeding the masses](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3055489)

     [Scene 11 – Eliminating the impossible](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3055672)

     [Scene 12 - To err is human](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3055852)

     [Scene 13 - ‘Tis new to thee](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3055909)

     [Scene 14 - And failure’s no success at all](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3056116)

     [Scene 15 – Lattes and logistics](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3056143)

     [Scene 16 - The steerage of my course](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3056230)

     [Scene 17 – Joining the story](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3056518)

     [Scene 18 - Canossa](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3056563)

     [Scene 19 – All of us](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3056596)

     [Scene 20 - Raven at my window](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438438/chapters/3057199)

 

Photo above is of Jake Pratt (Katherine Moennig) and Hamilton Fleming (Ian Somerhalder) from episode 5 of _Young Americans_.

 

           *       *       *


	5. Scene 1 – You’d better run

INT – FLEMING’S HOUSE, KITCHEN – DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAWN)

 

(The first light of day filters in through the windows. No artificial lights are on. The hearth is cold. Four loaves of home-baked bread sit in sealed, transparent plastic bags on top of the island in the center of the kitchen.

KATE Fleming, in a pink housecoat, enters from the hallway, half-stumbling backward, giggling. The DEAN, in lime-green pyjama bottoms imprinted with a pattern of tiny sailboats, follows closely, holding KATE's hand and trying to hold her still for a kiss, as the three golden retrievers frolic around them. Reaching the central island in the kitchen, with no more room to run, she gives him what he wants. Breaking off, KATE looks at the stove set into the island, and at the other kitchen counters, puzzled.)

KATE (muttering): Where’s the espresso pot?

(HAMILTON and JAKE, not yet seen by HAMILTON’s parents, sit together on the far side of the eating booth, JAKE nearer the front, HAMILTON nearer the back with an arm around her. HAMILTON wears a dress shirt, black-and-grey argyle-pattern wool sweater-vest, and dark grey wool slacks. JAKE wears her new white blouse, pleated grey wool skirt, black cardigan, and new black full-calf leather boots. On the table in front of them are two cups, a small pitcher of milk, a small unopened jar of home-made jam, and, on a potholder, an espresso pot. JAKE holds a pencil near a piece of paper on which she has been writing.)

HAMILTON (rolling his eyes at JAKE): It’s over here, Mom. Good morning. … ‘Morning, Dad.

(The DEAN hides behind KATE, looks over her shoulder at the kids.)

JAKE (glancing at HAMILTON, stifling a grin): Good morning, Mrs. Fleming, Dr. Fleming.

KATE (amused, looking over her shoulder at the DEAN): Good morning, Jacqueline, Hamilton.

DEAN (putting his arms around KATE): Good morning. You two are up early.

HAMILTON: We’re headed to the Inn for breakfast with Anne and Mark before we visit Dr. Hotchkiss. We were about to leave you a note.

JAKE (nodding toward the espresso pot on the booth table): There’s plenty of coffee. Join us?

DEAN: Sure. But first I should let the dogs out.

HAMILTON: Jacqueline and I already did that, Dad. And fed them.

DEAN: Thanks. Then I’ll just run upstairs and make myself decent. (He kisses KATE lightly on the neck and starts toward the door to the hallway.)

JAKE (sharply): Dr. Fleming …

(The DEAN stops, taken aback.)

JAKE (gently): You told me you’d treat me like family. Stay, please.

KATE (taking her husband’s hand): Jacqueline’s right, Steven. And next summer there’s the lake, the Cape, the Vineyard. Get used to it. Bring us a couple of cups, please. … (She releases the DEAN’s hand and slides into the booth across from JAKE and HAMILTON. Touching the jar of jam, to HAMILTON:) From your grandmother?

JAKE (nodding): Black raspberry jam, home-made. Two more jars in my backpack – one for me, one for Dr. Hotchkiss. We’ll deliver it.

(The DEAN rolls his eyes, opens a cupboard, takes out two small mugs, takes them to the booth, sets them down, sits next to KATE, briefly pets the retrievers.)

KATE (pouring espresso for the DEAN and herself): Hamilton, if you’d like to ask Mark and Anne here, I’d be happy to make us all breakfast. You needn’t, of course. But Steven and I would like to meet Anne today. It might be nice if Mark came by with her.

(JAKE and HAMILTON exchange a brief, appreciative smile.)

JAKE: Thanks, Mrs. Fleming, but Hamilton and I would like to spend this morning alone with Mark and Anne. We’re all close, we haven’t been together for three weeks, and a lot has happened since then. But all four of us would like to talk with Dr. Fleming and you today.

DEAN: Jacqueline, that will not be painful, I promise. And after telling us yesterday evening that Mark’s been dating your roommate for two months, you needn’t explain that the four of you are close. Kate and I were young once. Will your breakfast at the Inn will be delivered by room service?

JAKE (eyes downcast, smiling faintly): Probably, sir.

DEAN: Kate and I are happy for you. However much the four of you would like to tell us about how that works, and how it happened, we’d like to hear. … I gather Anne and Mark told Dr. Hotchkiss a great deal about it. He was gloating, yesterday morning, about knowing more than I do.

HAMILTON: Dad, my heart bleeds that you don’t know everything yet. Maybe because you’ve been too busy pulling off this year’s most impish school prank – as Dean?

KATE: And he wasn't gloating, Steven - just explaining why he could tell the faculty better than you could.

DEAN: He was gloating. … (To HAMILTON:) Your mother and I would like to meet Anne. We could free up a couple of hours this morning or early afternoon.

HAMILTON: Jacqueline and I are kinda booked until later in the day. As I told you last night, we’ll lunch at Friendly’s with Finn, Bella, Lena, Will and Scout.

DEAN (sipping espresso): Kate and I will want some privacy this afternoon and evening.

HAMILTON: Privacy?

DEAN: Yes. What you’ll be doing should not look like I’m stage-managing it, and your mother and I don’t want to be mobbed here. So we’ll stay home, and you and Jacqueline won’t come near this house from this afternoon till tomorrow morning. You’ll be provided other quarters for tonight.

HAMILTON: Other quarters.

DEAN: Yes. A place where a boy coming out as a girl and two gay boys coming out as straight can do what teenagers of that ilk do on such occasions, with one another and any friends who may wish to join them – without my knowledge, and not under my roof. Not because I condone such things, but because your mother and I want some privacy. Got it?

HAMILTON (grinning): Thanks, Dad.

KATE: One of the guest cottages, Jacqueline. Larger and nicer than a room at the Inn. I believe Hamilton and Mark may be acquainted with them.

(HAMILTON squirms slightly.)

JAKE (stifling a grin): Thanks.

DEAN: Is that enough of a bribe to get you to bring Kate and me the young lady Dr. Hotchkiss raved to us about, before everyone else on campus meets her and starts asking questions I don't know the answers to? Being the last to know is not what they pay me for.

HAMILTON: How about if Anne, Mark, Jacqueline and I come by here at nine?

KATE: You needn’t cut back on your time together that much. You said last night that you’re due at Dr. Hotchkiss’ at eleven?

HAMILTON: Yes.

KATE: Then why don’t all four of you come here at ten-thirty? Mark and Anne could stay for brunch while you and Jacqueline go see Dr. Hotchkiss. … (To JAKE:) He lives just around the corner. … Would that work for you, Steven?

DEAN: Sure. I have a few things I have to do at the office, but they shouldn’t take long.

JAKE (to HAMILTON): And you and I are what Anne, Mark, and your parents have in common. They’ll have more fun talking about us if we’re not here.

HAMILTON (To JAKE): And we’ll be less embarrassed.

JAKE (brushing the back of HAMILTON’s hand with a couple of fingers): Didn’t I just say that, boy?

KATE (after exchanging a smile with the DEAN): Then please invite Anne and Mark to brunch with us, and phone to let us know.

HAMILTON: Thanks, Mom. We will. … But Dad, if we’re only going to have half an hour together, there’s something Jacqueline and I should tell you now. Something that Mark wants to tell you as Dean … today … with Jacqueline.

DEAN (wincing): Mark knew last summer?

HAMILTON (nodding): More than two weeks before I did. But Will didn’t know that till Tuesday.

DEAN (sighing): How did Mark find out?

HAMILTON: He saw me hurting Jacqueline, and comforted her. And he fell for her pretty hard. But instead of going for her himself, he told her he’d seen that I hated hurting her, gave her hope I’d come 'round, and held her together till I did. Then he bugged out.

JAKE: And dated Lena for the rest of the summer – helping her get over us after we hurt her, but never really bedding her, and letting her go at term’s end, 'cause he couldn’t be honest with her about me.

(The DEAN and KATE exchange pained glances.)

HAMILTON: But if I hadn’t gone for Jacqueline at the cotillion, or if I’d run or ratted her out when she told me the truth, you’d have had two fewer students the next day.

JAKE: Mark was ready to take me out of here, first to his family for the rest of the summer, then to another school fall term. He even locked my bike, so I couldn’t leave alone.

HAMILTON: And I never knew about it till this term. But you should hear the rest from all four of us.

DEAN (nodding): Can you cover the gist in half an hour, and let Mark and Anne fill in the details?

HAMILTON: Yes, if we keep the small talk to a minimum and don’t spend much time on the disciplinary problem. That’s why I’m telling you about it now.

DEAN: I understand. And I won’t let this ruin our brunch. I do need to hear the facts from Mark, briefly, today. But today would be too soon to discuss his punishment anyhow. It’s an unusual case – much depends on how everyone reacts.

HAMILTON: Yeh … that’s occurred to us, too.

DEAN: How many people know that Mark knew?

HAMILTON: Just a few kids close to us. But Mark and Jacqueline didn’t hide that they were friends last summer. When he brings her roommate on campus today as his girlfriend, people will start to wonder.

DEAN (grimacing): You understand what that means?

HAMILTON: Yes. You’ll have to punish him, Dad. We all know that. And because he’s not your son, you can’t claim already to have done it by making him pretend to be gay and not bringing his girlfriend on campus – even though he’s done both those things for Jacqueline and me. And because you can’t favor me, you can’t let me off that way, either. Your plan to do that, much as I appreciate it, won’t fly.

DEAN (glumly): Exactly.

HAMILTON: Dad – Mark and I can attend Edmund for a year, if we have to. Mark can rent a place in town, maybe give some money to Edmund, in lieu of taxes, just to be ethical. We’ll be fine.

(The DEAN looks at KATE. She nods, smiles takes his hand.)

KATE: Hamilton, no matter what happens, Mark is always welcome here, if it’s OK with his parents.

HAMILTON: Thanks, Mom. But to attend Edmund, he’ll need a lease to establish residency … and you and Dad can’t rent rooms here. Especially not to a suspended student. He’ll need his own apartment.

DEAN: We know, Hamilton. That’s not what we mean. We mean that whether I have to suspend Mark or not … if he can get his parents’ consent … you can stop sneaking out Wednesday nights.

HAMILTON: Oh …

JAKE (softly): Thank you. (She puts HAMILTON’s hand on his parents’ hands, wrapping them with her own.)

(HAMILTON, recovering, looks into his parents’ eyes and squeezes their hands.)

DEAN (after a pause): You know, there could be an upside to my having to punish Mark.

HAMILTON: What?

DEAN: How much has Mark told his parents?

HAMILTON: Nothing. Not even about Anne – in case you and his parents talked.

DEAN: Then there is an upside. It’s that I’ll have to tell Mark’s parents why I’m punishing him – and why I wish I didn’t have to. No matter what punishment he’s given, Kate and I’ll have an excuse to tell Mark’s parents as much of this story as Mark would like us to tell them – and I think we could tell it pretty well.

HAMILTON: You’d do that?

DEAN: Can’t let you kids have all the fun. The Johnsons live near New York, don’t they?

HAMILTON (nodding): Short Hills, where I was going to spend this coming week before most of our break disappeared.

DEAN: It’s been a while since your mother and I had a night on the town in Manhattan.

KATE (smiling): It has. … (To JAKE:) And Steven and I have met one or both of Mark’s and Liz’s parents at the start of summer session and at two parents’ weekends. They seem very nice.

HAMILTON: Dad … Mom … You’re the best. I can’t thank you enough.

DEAN (withdrawing his hand): Remember that when you’re changing our first grandchild’s diaper at three A.M. on a workday.

HAMILTON (laughing, withdrawing his own hand): I’ll try.

DEAN: Well, don’t let Kate and me keep you two from your friends any longer. But Jacqueline, it’s very pleasant to get up in the morning and find you here with us.

JAKE: Dr. Fleming … I’m still afraid I’ll wake up.

DEAN: You won’t. But there’s one thing about this that doesn’t feel quite right.

JAKE: No Bach?

DEAN (laughing): The constant formality of address. “Dr. Fleming,” or “Dean” is fine most of the time. But we’re already too close for it to feel right all the time. And “Sir,” in most contexts, feels …

JAKE: Creepy?

DEAN: Something like that. On the other hand, I can’t let you call me “Steven.” If you were to do that in public when you’re a student here, it wouldn’t go over well. So I’m a bit stumped.

KATE (releasing JAKE’s hand to sip espresso): Fortunately, my position is less exalted. Feel free to call me “Kate” sometimes in private, Jacqueline. If you slip up in public, it’s no scandal.

JAKE: Thanks, Mrs. Fleming.

DEAN (to KATE): That does not solve my problem.

KATE: Jacqueline, do you think Steven wants help?

JAKE: Could be, Kate. You know guys. They’re too proud to ask for it.

(HAMILTON and the DEAN exchange eye-rolls.)

KATE: You know, Jacqueline, when Steven and I were younger, we had close friends, too. Some of them still are close. Just not in quite the same way, and we don’t see them as often as we’d like.

DEAN: That’s life, Kate. What’s your point?

KATE (taking his arm): Well, some of those friends used to call you something that Jacqueline would never be tempted to call you in public. What your Harvard and Andover friends used to call you. What Jack Calhoun still calls you sometimes. Couldn’t your son’s girlfriend call you that _en famille_ … “Skip”?

HAMILTON: Mom!

DEAN: Certainly not, “Binky”!

HAMILTON (burrowing his face in JAKE’s neck): Oh god …

JAKE (amused, looking at the DEAN’s leg protruding out from the booth): Cute pyjamas, Dr. Fleming.

(The DEAN pulls up straight, arching an eyebrow.)

JAKE: The little sailboats are inspiring. … You know, a boat, a family, a school – they all need a leader. What would you think of “Skipper”?

DEAN (pursing his lips, nodding): That might do.

JAKE (sweetly, lifting HAMILTON’s head, looking into his eyes): What do you think, Munchkin?

HAMILTON: You are so gonna pay for this …

DEAN: With interest, I trust. … (He stands, coffee cup in one hand, turns to KATE. Offering her his free hand:) And you and I aren’t spending all morning in the kitchen, are we, Binks?

KATE (sweetly, standing, clutching her coffee in one hand): Whatever you say, dear. Have a good morning, kids. (She leads the DEAN toward the hallway.)

JAKE: Thanks, you too.

(Waving goodbye, the DEAN starts to nibble KATE’s neck as they leave the kitchen. The dogs follow them out. JAKE drains her mug, stands.)

JAKE: You know, “Jake” has its downside, but I’ve heard worse.

(HAMILTON grabs for her. JAKE eludes him.)

HAMILTON (standing): You’d better run …

 

*       *       * 


	6. Scene 2 – Readying the candle

EXT – NEW RAWLEY TOWN COMMON, DAY 5 – SATURDAY (DAY - SUNRISE)

 

(A clear, windless start to what promises to be a relatively warm day. The town’s still asleep, no cars or pedestrians in sight. All’s quiet, save for an occasional bird call. High snowbanks block the view of or from the surrounding streets. The walkways traversing the common from its corners, converging to circle the bandstand, have been cleared of snow. Several snowmen stand not far from the walkways. The benches along the walkways have been brushed free of snow.

MARK and ANNE, in parkas, hooded, scarved, gloved and booted, stand arm-in-arm on the bandstand watching the daybreak, feeding bread to the birds. A few squirrels gather hopefully; sadly, they’re out of luck.

HAMILTON and JAKE, similarly clad, walk arm-in-arm toward the bandstand on the walkway from the corner between the Inn and the town hall. They climb up to join MARK and ANNE.

MARK tosses the last of the bread to the birds. He removes first his own gloves, then JAKE’s, while HAMILTON does the same with ANNE. Pocketing the gloves, each boy pushes back his friend’s girl’s hood and kisses her. Breaking off, each ersatz couple locks foreheads, unfastening each other’s parkas, caressing inside.)

HAMILTON (to ANNE, softly): Welcome to Rawley.

ANNE: We’re not on campus yet, boy.

MARK: When you’re in Ham’s arms, you are at Rawley.

ANNE: Mmmm … Then I’ll take the in-depth tour.

MARK (to JAKE): Welcome back, beautiful. Happy?

JAKE (nodding): In heaven.

MARK (softly): “To make the candle ready for its flame.”

(They kiss again, more affectionately than erotically this time. Each boy takes his girl from the other boy, and all four move to the eastern side of the bandstand. HAMILTON and MARK lean against a column, shoulder to shoulder, JAKE and ANNE nestling into them. They all face westward, watching the first sunlight move down the snow-covered trees, shimmering.)

ANNE: How’s Boston?

HAMILTON: Great, as always. … Show you?

ANNE: They have hotels there?

HAMILTON (trading grins with JAKE): We can do better than that. … Thanks for the warning Wednesday morning.

ANNE: We knew you’d use it well.

HAMILTON: And for telling Dr. Hotchkiss.

ANNE: Hamilton, that was pure pleasure.

JAKE (to HAMILTON): Ya know, my Latin sucks. I might want private lessons.

(HAMILTON kisses JAKE on the forehead, hugs her.)

JAKE: How’d it go yesterday with Will and Scout?

(MARK unwraps ANNE’s scarf, opens her blouse a little, revealing a ruby pendant hanging from a metal chain.)

JAKE: Oh my god … the chain’s from Will?

MARK (to HAMILTON): Platinum. It must have cost a month of his tutoring wages.

ANNE: He asked Mark to put it on me when we sat down to lunch at the Inn. But neither Will nor Scout mentioned Homecoming all the time we were with them.

MARK: Over lunch, they told us what happened at the Flemings’ and the Banks’ Thanksgiving evening.

ANNE: And each of them had waited to hear the other’s story, so that he could hear it for the first time with us.

(JAKE looks into HAMILTON’s eyes, then burrows into his chest.)

ANNE (caressing JAKE’s head): Yeh. … (Withdrawing her hand:) But Ham, what your dad offered to do for Jackie … Thank god you two don’t have to decide whether to let him go through with that. Why didn’t you tell him then that you won’t? And when will you tell him?

HAMILTON: We talked about whether to go back inside and tell him as soon as he pushed us out the door Thursday night. But we decided to wait until tomorrow.

JAKE: Until it’s a _fait accompli_ , Anne. It’s better to leave him no choice. He’s being suicidally kind.

ANNE: Sounds like he’s in love with his son.

JAKE: Uh, with his wife, too. You should see.

HAMILTON: What’d you do after lunch?

ANNE: Will took us all to the town skating rink. It was just opening up for the season – and Will, like Bella and Jen, seems to know everybody.

HAMILTON: It’s a small town. How was the skating?

ANNE: Mine was slow and shaky. And my virgin ankles only lasted half an hour.

JAKE (smiling): We’ll work on them.

ANNE: But the guys expected that, and the rinkhouse rents cross-country skis and snowshoes as well as skates. The guys let me choose. I chose snowshoeing.

JAKE: Snowshoeing?

ANNE: Ever done it?

JAKE: No.

ANNE: Neither had I.

JAKE: Isn’t it kinda … slow?

ANNE: Yeh, but we had a lot of lost time to make up for, and skis really get in the way, ya know?

JAKE (grinning): Brazen hussy.

ANNE (pulling JAKE closer): We snowshoed through the woods by the lake. Nobody there but us. Totally quiet … except for an occasional bird call or train whistle, and the little streams. The sound of water running over ice, like chimes – I’d never heard that before. … And all the old stone walls, like giant mole-tracks under the snow, and the occasional chimney … It was all farms once …

MARK (nuzzling): It was a hard life. People chose to leave it.

ANNE: I know, but it still looks so sad.

JAKE: All those people in California had to come from somewhere, girl.

ANNE (laughing): Yeh, they did. … Anyhow, when he saw how much I liked the water-music, Will took us to a little waterfall where a spring comes out of a hillside, a drinkable xylophone in a dell full of birch trees. While Mark and I lapped spring water from each other’s hands, Scout and Will pulled a tarp out of a backpack, spread it out …

JAKE: Ooooo, a seduction?

ANNE: My first winter picnic. They’d brought apples, some cold turkey, a brick of smoked cheddar, and loaf of home-baked bread, all from Will’s mom … and a bottle of Stag’s Leap Cask Twenty-Three.

JAKE: Your favorite wine? How’d they come up with that in half a day?

ANNE: They didn’t. Scout said that the second time they bused up to Grottlesex, the last Sunday in October, he’d noticed the empty bottle that I use for a vase in our room, and you’d told him it was from a vineyard my family likes to visit.

JAKE: I did. So he got a bottle?

MARK: He said that after Liz dumped him, he'd asked his dad to have a bottle shipped to him. He’d liked what he’d heard about your roommate, figured he’d meet her sooner or later, and wanted to be prepared to make a play for her when he did. He wasn’t about to be deterred by an unknown boyfriend at an unknown school.

ANNE: Mark and I melted, Jackie. Mark had just told me, Thursday night, about Ham and Scout – they’d just asked him to do that before I met Scout. And Ham, I’m so sorry – not that it happened, but that it came between you …

HAMILTON: That’s over.

ANNE: And Scout’s wanting to go for your girlfriend’s very close roommate was so obviously part of that. He’d hoped to have with you what Mark has.

JAKE: He will. He knows that.

ANNE: And he and Will are so in love with you two. When the walls came down, they were all about thanking Mark and me for being there for you.

JAKE: Did you make it to Bella’s in time for dinner?

MARK: With time to spare.

JAKE: You’re kidding.

ANNE: Jackie – Scout and Will were totally in control. They'd planned to warm Mark and me up, then leave us alone.

(JAKE purrs and burrows into HAMILTON.)

MARK: After our lunch, they dug out a blanket for us and started to put their snowshoes back on. But that’s not what we wanted, and we let them know that.

ANNE: So we talked and kissed, me sandwiched under a blanket between Mark and two gorgeous guys who really care for him, and who’d made me feel welcome and wanted in more ways than I could have imagined, while we drank my favorite wine and listened to the stream.

HAMILTON: What'd you talk about?

ANNE: Apart from you two? San Francisco, mostly. Scout said Will had never been there, and asked me to tell him about what I loved most about my home.

JAKE: So you talked about the fog, and the redwoods, the Mendocino coast, and the shape of the hills?

ANNE: Yeh. At first, I thought Scout was just being sweet, ‘cause what first-year at a boarding school isn’t a little homesick? But as I talked, Scout began nuzzling Will, and Will closed his eyes, and I saw – this is how Scout loves Will, telling him about the world he wants to bring Will into, and he was letting me help him. He was letting Mark and me into what he and Will have.

JAKE (looking up at HAMILTON): Maybe Hammy and I should try snowshoeing.

MARK: What you should try is Bella.

HAMILTON: Yeh. … How was your evening with her and Will?

MARK: Great. Seafood at Fanny’s followed by cheesecake at the Banks’ with Scout and Grace, who’d had turkey leftovers with Charlie. Then Charlie went out, and Scout helped Grace with her homework, while Bella, Will, Anne and I messed around and watched _Casablanca_ in Bella’s room. …

(JAKE’s jaw drops.)

MARK: Then coffee and a second round of dessert with Grace and Scout – bread pudding, this time.

HAMILTON (to JAKE): See? Wasn’t that well told? Concise, factual, no mushy stuff … so guy-like.

JAKE: Yeh, right, rooftop ironist. … (To MARK:) You got Bella … and Will … to mess around.

MARK: We didn’t get them to do anything. It was all Bella’s show. And they didn’t mess around much with each other. More with us.

ANNE: As Bella so romantically put it right after Scout and Grace went downstairs to look over her homework and cover the pumps: “Will may be too nice to make you keep your promise to let him reciprocate, Miss Bancroft. But I’m not. In my room, with Mark, now.”

JAKE: No way. Thursday afternoon …

ANNE: A lot has changed since then, thanks to Grace. Bella’s not scared of hurting Scout or Will anymore. She may not yet have the courage to follow her heart, but at least she’s sure of where it lies. And she’s so happy … for Scout, for Sean, for Mark and me, for you and Ham – even if she doesn’t know yet how well it went with Ham’s folks Thursday evening.

JAKE: But she was, like … in bed … with Will.

MARK: Yes, but Bella can be wicked. She and Will kept their pants on.

ANNE: So did you, jerk.

MARK (shrugging): I thought I'd keep Will company.

ANNE: And Bella got the message. But why do you get to have pride, while I turn to jelly?

HAMILTON: It’s the female gift for bringing people together, Anne. I believe Tiresias mentioned it …

ANNE: You can be so smug …

HAMILTON: Just grateful.

JAKE: That’s still huge – way closer than they’ve ever been.

MARK (nodding): Anne and I were flattered to be occasion for it.

JAKE: Was Will in on this … like, in advance?

ANNE: No, he was even more surprised than we were. And so grateful … and so cute.

JAKE: And?

ANNE: No way! You want to know, go bed them!

JAKE: Hamilton …

HAMILTON: I’m staying out of this.

JAKE: Mark …

MARK: Not a chance. … Afterwards, Anne put her jeans back on, Bella brought us some water, put her _Casablanca_ DVD into her laptop … and we watched the movie.

JAKE: Topless … on Bella’s bed … all four of you?

ANNE: Really nice. We held them for that.

JAKE: But Will and Bella must have been in agony. Couldn’t you do anything? … (To MARK:) Keeping them company was sweet, but it’s not a solution.

HAMILTON (nipping JAKE's neck): I suspect Will was OK after Thursday night. But you may underestimate how much Mark can do with a little … and Bella's attraction to Will.

ANNE (smiling): So did Bella. Mark's telling her about Will's performance at the _Rag_ office Wednesday, and Susan's and Wendy's response to it, helped.

JAKE (leaning across to kiss MARK): Well done, boy. … (Breaking off, nestling back into HAMILTON:) But you stopped?

MARK (shrugging): It's a good movie.

JAKE: That's why we have pause buttons.

MARK: None of us wanted to do more, Jackie. 

ANNE: Including Will.

JAKE: Why not?

MARK: Bella's not ready. Besides, something was missing.

JAKE: What?

ANNE: You and Ham, girl. You’re the couple that got them together, you’re the first couple they’ll want with them when Bella _is_ ready, you’re the couple whose help she needs now to be ready …

MARK: And we all want you with us the first time we’re really together.

JAKE (after a pause): Thanks. … (To HAMILTON:) But if Bella could do that without cracking … she’s going to be a tough nut to crack.

HAMILTON (looking at MARK): Maybe we’ll be given a nutcracker. … Why _Casablanca_?

JAKE (after exchanging an eye-roll with MARK and ANNE): You need to ask?

ANNE: For the same reason Finn had your school watch it and discuss it last night - because it reminds everyone who's heard your story of you, Hamilton.

HAMILTON: Oh … the dinner jacket.

MARK: More your letting your girl go, because it was the right thing to do.

ANNE: Bella said she thought that watching it might give me something to talk about with Rawley kids today.

MARK: And we all discussed it over second dessert with Scout and Grace.

JAKE: But they hadn’t watched it.

MARK: They had - downstairs on Grace’s laptop. Bella had told her we’d be watching it and discussing it. So Grace made a copy and when they finished with her homework, she asked Scout whether he’d like to watch it, too. Of course, he appreciated being included.

ANNE: Grace was in on Bella’s game.

MARK: So was Charlie, to some extent. He left offering a bogus apology for being unable to come home before midnight. Finn needed him, he said.

ANNE: They both seem totally in Will’s corner.

MARK: But before Bella called Grace and Scout to come upstairs for pudding, Bella asked a favor of Will and me.

HAMILTON: What?

MARK: To keep our shirts off through dessert and coffee. A request from Grace, she said, in return for covering the pumps for her all evening. Bella told us Scout would know what had been going on anyhow, that she’d told Grace and asked her to tell Scout – which was pretty considerate to everybody. So Will and I laughed and agreed, thinking Grace just wanted a little fantasy material.

JAKE: She didn’t?

ANNE: She wants Scout.

MARK: And when she and Scout came upstairs, she did not act fourteen.

ANNE: She set down her laptop – Scout was carrying her books, of course – smiled at us, kissed Will's cheek, took Mark's and my hands and said, “Thank you.” Then she asked the four of us to sit down in the dining room …

MARK: And put on “I Won’t Stand in Your Way Anymore,” by The Stray Cats.

HAMILTON: The song they were playing at the summer cotillion when Bella and Will walked in?

MARK: Grace was there, guy. But this time, it was pretty clearly a message from her to Bella.

ANNE: Then Grace asked Scout to help her serve the coffee and pudding. When they finished doing that, as Scout was waiting to help her into her seat, she said to him, “You’re overdressed, boy.”

JAKE (rolling her eyes): Bella called her into line?

ANNE: Nope. Just looked into Will’s eyes.

JAKE: Oh god …

MARK: Jackie, I’m sure Bella was surprised. She wouldn’t manipulate Will and me against Scout without telling us. But she also wasn’t going to come between her sister and Scout.

HAMILTON: How’d Scout handle it?

MARK: Shot Grace a look that would wither springtime. But she’d only begun – said, “I’d help you myself if I weren’t underage.”

JAKE: Ewww …

ANNE: Yeh, jerked his chain pretty hard. And it got to him. He was about to say something sweet, but Grace cut him off, saying, “So why don’t you ask Bella.”

MARK: And then Scout looked seriously pissed. But Grace just stared him down, and said, slowly: “You are not in love with my sister.”

HAMILTON: The elephant in the living room.

MARK: Yeh. Exactly what needed to be said. And as it dawned on Scout that Grace was giving him a chance to say it, painlessly, he slowly broke into a smile, nodded, and said: “No, I’m not.”

ANNE: Then he pulled off his sweater, took Grace’s hand, and put it on his top shirt button.

JAKE: He let her take his shirt off … in front of the four of you.

MARK: And she did it beautifully, looking down occasionally to admire what she was uncovering, but mostly just looking into his eyes. And he just looked into hers.

JAKE (sighing): Sounds like you guys were right Thursday night.

MARK: Don’t read too much into it, Jackie. Scout’s torn. He really likes Lena, and no sane person our age wants to fall for a fourteen-year-old.

ANNE: Besides, Grace really didn’t leave Scout much choice. She’d behaved like a socially adroit adult, offering Scout a partner for dealing with two couples he’s close to and who’d just bonded.

MARK: And defusing the tension of his being there with Will and Bella. He’d have insulted Grace for no reason, and kinda ruined the evening for everyone, if he’d treated her more like a kid than he had to.

JAKE: Yeh, she out-manœuvred him at his own game, politics. Like, for the second night in a row. I’m sure he was impressed.

ANNE: He was. When she had his shirt off, she let him hold her chair for her, and as he did he leaned in and asked her: “So where’s the little girl who was here yesterday evening?” She looked back at him and said, “Her daddy went out. And she’s not quite what you need this evening, is she, whatever-it-is-you-are-to-me?” And he laughed.

JAKE (wrinkling her nose): “Whatever-it-is-you-are-to-me”?

ANNE: Seems to be what she and Scout have started calling each other.

JAKE: He calls her that, too?

ANNE: He did when he said goodbye-to her last night.

JAKE: Game over, guys.

MARK: Not necessarily. We teased Scout a little about that as he and Will walked us back to the Inn. He says it just refers to the doubt about whether he’s the half-brother of her half-sister.

JAKE: Yeh, right. … Did she keep on flirting all through dessert?

ANNE: No need. She had him pretty much where she wanted him – shirtless at her table and discussing a love story with her and two couples he needs a partner to be close to.

JAKE: So she backed off?

ANNE: Oh no, just switched tactics. She kept playing hostess through our discussion of _Casablanca_. Did it well, too. Offered information, asked questions, reconciled conflicting opinions, never came right out with her own … but Mark and I think our discussion ended up pretty much where she wanted it to go.

HAMILTON: Which was where?

MARK: The flick’s a great love story because it’s great, self-critical war propaganda.

JAKE: What?

ANNE: It’s a 1942 flick, set in the week before Pearl Harbor, written by guys whose next job was to make the U.S. Government’s main war propaganda film series. Grace pointed all that out. She seemed to have done some reading.

MARK: The love story’s a metaphor for the war story. Bogie has to give up Bergman for the same reason that Americans have to give up peace – to atone for having done nothing while Hitler conquered Europe. The message is that you can’t really love anyone if you don’t love everyone.

JAKE (to HAMILTON): Politics as love … Scout. … (To MARK:) Bella is so obviously helping Grace with this, in so many ways.

ANNE: Maybe less than you think. Scout said Grace had led the conversation Thanksgiving night just as skillfully, with no help from Bella.

MARK: And Grace is helping Bella and Will, too. She knows that Bella’s worry about her, and about Scout, is part of what’s keeping Bella from going for Will – that’s why she played that song, and got Scout to say, right out, that he’s not in love with Bella. And Scout sees all that.

(JAKE looks at HAMILTON questioningly.)

HAMILTON (softly): He’s Scout.

JAKE (to MARK): Look, if Grace is what Scout wants, Hamilton and I’ll help – no question. But having to wait a year to have Scout with us would suck. And we want Lena with us …

MARK: Jackie, Lena will have no problem finding a great guy – especially after tonight. But we may have to wait for someone, no matter how this works out. If Scout goes for Lena, then Bella stays worried about Grace, and we have may to wait for Will and Bella. If Scout commits to Grace, we won’t have him with us for a while … but we might have Will and Bella with us a lot sooner.

JAKE: I get that. It’s just that …

ANNE: Dreams die hard? And waiting’s not easy? No joke. Imagine how Scout must feel.

JAKE (to HAMILTON): Sorry.

HAMILTON (pulling JAKE’s head to his chest): Come here. … (To MARK, while caressing JAKE’s head:) How well do you two know Grace? And how much does she know about us?

MARK: Only what Charlie knows. But we’ve cut Grace in on some meals and walks with Bella. She’s a sweet, hurt, kid, Jackie.

ANNE: Who's trying really hard.

MARK: And whose take on Mercutio was …

JAKE: Inspiringly loving. My boyfriend was smitten.

HAMILTON (nuzzling): We all were. 

ANNE: So enough about Grace, for now. Whatever Scout decides, we’ll deal with it. And we have more pressing problems.

HAMILTON: We do. … What are your plans for today?

MARK: This afternoon I’ll take Anne to meet Liz, and tell Liz what’s going on. Apart from that, Anne and I are free. You and Jackie?

HAMILTON: We’ll visit Dr. Hotchkiss, lunch at the diner with Finn and the gang, then try to slip away with Will and Bella. But we’ll eat dinner at the dining hall. Invite us, please?

MARK (to JAKE, grinning): A coming-out party?

JAKE (grinning back): Yeh. For Anne and you, too, OK?

MARK (after exchanging grins with ANNE): Our pleasure.

HAMILTON: Great. And after dinner, we all disappear and let the _Rag_ girls do their thing. … But before any of that … my parents would like Anne and you to brunch with them at my house at ten-thirty. Jacqueline and I’ll go with you, but we’ll leave at eleven to see Dr. Hotchkiss. And about that, there’s good news and bad news.

MARK: What’s the bad news?

HAMILTON: It’s a command performance. I told my Dad this morning that you knew about Jacqueline last summer, ‘cause we’ll only have half an hour to run through everything my parents didn’t hear from Will two weeks ago. But he’ll want to hear it again from you.

MARK: Ham, that’s not bad. It’s good that your dad won’t be surprised. Half an hour’s a bit rushed, but Anne and I can fill in what the four of us miss.

HAMILTON: Thanks. Jacqueline and I will stop by the house again after we see Dr. Hotchkiss, to change clothes … and in case my dad has any questions for us.

ANNE: And the good news?

JAKE: That’ll take longer.

HAMILTON: First, it won't be a disciplinary hearing. Anne, my parents chiefly want to meet you – that was the first thing they said to us this morning.

JAKE: They offered to fix breakfast for all four of us – like, now – even though they’d pretty obviously planned to spend the morning doing something else.

ANNE: Ham, that’s sweet.

JAKE: Yeh, it was.

MARK: So what’s the rest of the good news?

JAKE (fondling HAMILTON’s chest): Hammy’s dad’s not bad shirtless. Maybe I’ll be able to deal with middle age.

HAMILTON: Funny.

JAKE: Hey, a girl’s gotta think about the long run.

HAMILTON: What, you wanna tell it?

JAKE: Thanks. … (She kisses HAMILTON briefly. To MARK and ANNE:) The real news is that Hamilton’s parents know about us, and they’re cool with it. We told them last night that Mark’s with my roommate. That was all they needed to figure it out. Hamilton's dad even joked about it. Asked whether the breakfast I said we were coming to the Inn to have with you would be delivered by room service.

ANNE: Wow.

MARK: Yeh. Now that they know Ham’s not gay, I was afraid I might be, like, the fly in their soup.

JAKE: You’re so not, Mark. When Hamilton and I told his parents what you did for us and for Lena last summer … they said that if you can get your parents’ consent, then Hammy can stop sneaking out Wednesday nights.

MARK: You’re kidding.

HAMILTON: She’s not.

MARK: We could use your room?

HAMILTON: That was pretty clearly implied.

MARK: How long have they known? And how?

HAMILTON: Beats me. I don’t plan to ask.

JAKE: And Mark … the Dean said that, since he’ll have to tell your parents why he’s punishing you, he’d also like to tell them why he wishes he didn’t have to. He and Ham’s mom offered to spend an evening with your parents in New York telling them about the four of us … if you’d like.

(MARK, speechless, looks into ANNE’s eyes.)

ANNE (softly): Family.

MARK: Yeh. … Ham, if those offers still stand tomorrow, when your parents know everything … may I take this - the acceptance, the bond with your family?

HAMILTON: If I didn’t want you to, you wouldn’t have heard about it.

MARK: I know. But I had to ask.

HAMILTON: I know.

MARK (to ANNE): We need for you to meet my parents.

ANNE: So why don’t you and I start and end Christmas break with your family, but spend the middle of it with mine, in Atherton? The first time we’re with your folks, it’ll be just you and me. The second time, Ham and Jackie can visit.

MARK: Except that we’ll spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day apart, with our families?

ANNE: Fine. But no more Christmases apart after this, please. We alternate between our families. Or get them together.

MARK (kissing ANNE lightly): Deal. … (Breaking off:) Jackie, could you and Ham come to Short Hills to meet my parents for a couple of days toward the end of Christmas break?

JAKE (after seeking and getting a nod from HAMILTON): Definitely. I’ll be in New York. Hamilton?

HAMILTON: Of course. Thanks.

MARK: Great. So we have a plan.

ANNE: For that. But what’s the plan for today? Ham – Mark and I can’t tell your dad we know that he offered to lie for Jackie and you Thursday evening, can we?

HAMILTON: Sorry, no. He’ll suspect you know, but if you mentioned it, he’d be mortified.

ANNE: That sucks. Hugging your dad for that is the first thing I’d like to do when I meet him. So we just file that in our heads under “Who Ham’s dad really is,” and don’t talk about it for the rest of his life?

JAKE: Right. And I’ll try to live up to it.

ANNE: Not alone.

JAKE: I know.

MARK (after a pause): Ham – Will said yesterday that and you’ll tell only Scout, Lena, Bella, Anne and me what happened at your house Thursday evening. That’s still the plan?

HAMILTON (nodding): Just the people we’re so close to that we couldn’t keep it from you if we tried.

MARK: Will also said that we can tell anyone else the truth about what your parents did as your parents, dealing with Jacqueline as your girlfriend – but nothing about what your dad did as Dean, dealing with her as a former or prospective student.

ANNE: He said you, Jackie and he had decided on that Thursday night, walking him back to his dorm from your house, and that he’d already told that version to Jan and Alice, so they can tell the school.

HAMILTON: Right. You see any problem with that?

MARK: I’m not sure. Mind if we run through it?

HAMILTON: Not at all, thanks.

MARK: We’re not hiding that your parents had found out that Jacqueline was a girl, even though they didn’t seem surprised when she showed up dressed as a boy.

HAMILTON: We can’t hide that. Everybody who was at our house for Thanksgiving dinner will figure out that the parentals were having fun at my expense, and Jacqueline’s, by inviting her back as a guy.

JAKE: And that’s cool. Everybody’ll like that Hamilton’s parents took a little revenge on us for making them think their son was gay, and for staining his dad’s professional record. In retrospect, I kinda like it, though at the time I sure didn’t.

MARK: And we tell the truth about how Ham’s parents found out. They thought you were a boy and that Ham was gay until two weeks ago. They found out you’re a girl by asking Finn for advice when they were thinking of stopping Ham from seeing you until he admitted to them that he was gay. In order to stop Ham’s parents from doing that, Finn pressured Will to tell Ham’s parents you’re a girl.

JAKE: Right.

ANNE: So Finn’s catching you in the shower goes public?

JAKE: I’ll deal with it. Everything from last summer goes public, except for Mark and me, and Dr. Hotchkiss and Hamilton.

MARK (to HAMILTON): You’re sure that won’t hurt Finn?

HAMILTON: Finn’s blameless. He wasn’t sure of what he saw, and Jacqueline split for August break right after Finn walked in on us. Finn had every reason to wait until she came back this term to start asking questions.

MARK: Like, that he spent the break backpacking in Costa Rica.

HAMILTON: That too. And since Jacqueline never came back, he never had to do anything.

MARK: Good. And we say that your parents invited Jackie here for Thanksgiving so they could tell both of you they know that she’s a girl, so that you could stop letting everyone think you’re gay, and so that she could start spending some weekends here with you.

JAKE: Right. They just did it in a way that let them tease us a little before they forgave us. 

MARK: Can we say that Jackie’d like to transfer back here?

HAMILTON: Definitely. We just don’t talk about any discussion with my dad of that, or of anyone’s punishment.

MARK (after exchanging a nod with ANNE): OK.

JAKE: I’m sorry it’s all so complicated. That this whole year is so hard ... because of me.

ANNE: We’ll pull through it, Jackie. Together. And because it’s hard, we’ll grow more, better, faster than we would if it weren’t. Hasn’t crew taught you anything, girl?

JAKE: Yeh, it has. Thanks.

(ANNE disengages from MARK, pulls JAKE to her, hugs her.)

ANNE (to MARK): Wanna go inside? Maybe make good on Ham’s dad’s wisecrack about room service?

MARK: For sure. Ham, is it too early to phone your folks to accept their brunch invitation?

HAMILTON (joining the girls’ hug): The sooner the better.

(MARK moves to the center of the bandstand, pulls his mobile phone out of an inside parka pocket, opens it, presses a button.)

MARK: Mrs. Fleming? … Mark Johnson. … Thank you, Hamilton told us. Anne and I are with Jacqueline and him now. We accept with pleasure. For ten-thirty, right? … Great. See you then. … You too. … (Closing and pocketing the phone:) Uh, Ham … Do your folks have house guests other than Jacqueline this weekend? Including a kid, maybe?

HAMILTON: No, why?

MARK: Just curious. Your mom was telling some guy named Skipper to stop doing something.

(HAMILTON burrows his face into JAKE’s neck.)

ANNE: Jackie?

JAKE: Hey, my lips are sealed.

MARK (grinning at ANNE, putting an arm around her): Some silences speak volumes. … So, Munchie son of Skipper, can you recite your genealogy all the way back to the _Mayflower_ for us?

HAMILTON (lifting his head to glare at MARK): The _Arbella_ , Johnson, not the _Mayflower_. And you’re not gonna eat breakfast, you’re gonna be breakfast – for all three of us.

MARK (sighing in mock resignation, leading them all down the steps of the bandstand): Ah well, words have consequences. …

 

*       *       * 


	7. Scene 3 - Red-hots

INT - RAWLEY BOYS’, SCOUT’S & WILL’S DORM ROOM, DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAY - MORNING)

 

(The beds have been reassembled, the lava lamp and space heater turned off. The window blind is raised, showing snow melting off trees in the sunlight. CHARLIE’s copy of _Little Women_ , bookmarked mid-way through, lies on the nightstand beside SCOUT’s bed. In the bed by the window, WILL lies under the covers, shirtless, propped up on two pillows, typing on his laptop; _Western Star_  lies atop  _Concord and Merrimack_  on his nightstand. The bell carillon plays the first two bars of the Westminster Quarters.

SCOUT enters, in a jacket and scarf, carrying a covered paper cup. )

SCOUT: ‘Morning, Will. I brought you some coffee.

WILL: Thanks, Scout. How was breakfast?

SCOUT (handing WILL the cup): Still plenty of pancakes.

WILL (propping himself up higher in the bed to drink): Just pancakes? No people?

SCOUT (smiling): Finn and I chatted a while. Then Lena and I planned a snow sculpture as a themed pair with one that Susan and Wendy said that Jan and Alice are making.

WILL (between sips of coffee): Sorry I missed that. What’s the theme?

SCOUT (going to his dresser, taking a small plastic sandwich bag out of a jacket pocket, putting it on top of the dresser): True love.

WILL: Trading on advance knowledge of breaking news?

SCOUT: So shoot me. Like to help Lena and me sculpt Orpheus and Eurydice this afternoon?

WILL: Mightn’t I serve true love better by letting you two do that alone?

SCOUT (taking off his jacket and scarf, throwing them on his bed): Possibly. Suit yourself.

WILL (setting the coffee down on his nightstand): That’s a nice start.

SCOUT: What?

WILL (looking at his computer screen): The scarf and jacket.

SCOUT: I’m not going to be here long, guy.

WILL: None of us is, Scout. All the more reason to make the most of it. _Carpe diem_.

SCOUT: You’re hopeless.

WILL: Just trying to take what little I can. … (He looks at SCOUT, and, pleased to find SCOUT’s eyes glued to him, smiles and slightly arches his chest.) … And to give what little I can.

SCOUT: We both so need girls …

WILL: Uh - huh. So humor me.

(SCOUT pulls off his shirt and sweater together, slowly, watching WILL watch him.)

SCOUT: Better?

WILL (turning back to his computer screen): Much.

(SCOUT throws his bundled shirt-and-sweater at WILL, hits him in the face. Will picks it up with his hand farther from SCOUT, holds it, looks at it.)

WILL: Surely you don’t expect mere lust to distract me from my calling?

SCOUT (amused): “Mere lust.”

WILL (tucking SCOUT’s clothes behind his pillow, looking innocently at SCOUT): What else?

SCOUT (laughing, now at ease): Yeh, right. … So whatcha writin’?

WILL (picking up his coffee again): Same old story. True love. Needs updating, you know.

SCOUT: Again? Krudski, it was bad enough on St. Martin. I could hardly drag you out of the house the first few days.

WILL (drinking): Memory fades, topless beaches are forever. … You’ll check the part about what went on at the girls’ school Thursday evening?

SCOUT: Only if you stop skipping breakfast. … I brought you something else from the dining hall, courtesy of Mrs. Haggerty. (He takes the sandwich bag off the top of his dresser, tosses it to WILL, who catches it. It contains several dozen cinnamon red-hots.)

(A pause. WILL stares first at the candies, then at SCOUT.)

WILL (uneasily): Why, Scout?

SCOUT (softly, serious now): Hoping maybe you might find a use for them. … I heard a story about red-hots Thursday evening, Will. A true love story. Almost like a fairy tale.

WILL: True love’s rare, Scout. Don’t cheapen it.

SCOUT: It’s about a boy who won a girl’s heart when they were six years old and her mom abandoned her. He consoled her by giving her his bag of red-hots. He made her feel loved at the moment of her life when she most needed that. He saved her, Will, every bit as much as Hamilton saved Jake. If he hadn’t been there for her then, and since, she’d have been as screwed up as her little sister.

WILL (again setting the coffee cup on his nightstand): Come here.

(SCOUT sits down on the edge of WILL’s bed.)

WILL (closing his laptop, setting it aside): The boy in that story never sacrificed anything like what Hamilton sacrificed for Jake. All he gave up for that girl was a bag of candy.

SCOUT (brushing WILL’s hair off his forehead): It was all he had.

WILL: Who told you that story, Scout?

SCOUT: Someone who overheard it in a pickup truck headed to Carson last August.

WILL: Hamilton?

SCOUT (nodding): I already knew some parts of that story, but I hadn’t heard the part about the red-hots. Hearing it helped me understand what kind of story it is, and how it has to end.

WILL: Lie down. … (He gently pulls SCOUT down to lie, still outside the covers, with his head on WILL’s shoulder. Wrapping his arms around SCOUT:) You’re a lousy story-teller Calhoun. You set out to tell a tale of true love, and you leave out the part that’s closest to that.

SCOUT: Which is?

WILL: When that boy got older and went off to school, he was given a roommate who made him feel more loved than he’d ever felt before. From the first day they met, his roommate gave him everything he could give him, in every way. Just because the boy was there and needed it. His roommate never asked for anything in return. And the boy never had anything to give him back.

SCOUT: But that boy uses what he’s given really well, to love other people, including that girl. Maybe that’s why the boy’s roommate loves him. And maybe that’s all he wants in return. … That, and to be held sometimes.

WILL (looking into Scout’s eyes, smiling): Not often enough. This bed by the window was the second thing you gave me. And this is the first time you’ve been in it.

SCOUT (puzzled): What was the first thing I gave you?

WILL: Pretending not to have heard something.

SCOUT: Ah. … “Just think about the good stuff,” beautician’s son. … (He reaches for the coffee cup, hands it to WILL.) … And when Bella’s ready, don’t let worry about hurting me stop you.

WILL: We won’t. But we will try to hurt you as little as we can. (He sips some coffee.)

SCOUT: It’d hurt me a lot less now than it would have a few days ago.

WILL: I’m glad. … (Nuzzling SCOUT’s head:) The past few days have been good, haven’t they?

SCOUT (snuggling closer into WILL): Better than good, Will.

WILL: How’s Lena?

SCOUT (grinning up at WILL): She actually flirted this morning. The apology seems to have worked.

WILL: Great. Then maybe you and I should talk about something.

SCOUT: What, guy?

WILL: I don’t want to pressure you, but … please try not to waste time.

SCOUT: I don’t plan to.

WILL (setting the coffee back down on the night stand): Good … 'cause If Bella were ready for me before you have a girl, you and I might have to make some changes.

SCOUT: Like what?

WILL (gently, rising up on one elbow): Scout, I think one of us might have to move out of this room. Just until you have a girlfriend, and are over Bella.

SCOUT (plainly hurt): Because you don’t want to hurt me?

WILL: Partly. And partly because I think you’re deep in blueblood denial about what could happen.

SCOUT: What can happen? Either I can stand it or I can’t. If I can’t, I switch rooms. Either way, we stay friends. Couldn’t we wait and see whether I can stand it?

WILL: Scout, if Bella and I get together before you have a girlfriend, the important question won’t be whether you can stand it. It’ll be whether Bella and I can stand it.

SCOUT (after a pause): No … you wouldn’t …

WILL: I’m afraid we might, Scout.

SCOUT: Will, we do not want to go there.

WILL: No joke. I’m not sure we could stop … or pull in another girl and turn it into two couples, close but … distinct. But would that stop Bella and me, if you were lonely, and hurting because of us? And If Bella and I came to you when you were lonely and hurting, are you sure you could walk away?

SCOUT: I just have to believe we’d all help one another not to do that.

WILL: I’m trying to, now.

SCOUT: I know.

WILL: So if Lena’s who you want, and if she seems receptive …

SCOUT: I get it. “Get a girl and get over Bella.” Same message as always – just louder now.

WILL: Sorry, guy. Look on the bright side. You and Lena can safely lead this dance. I have no history with Lena. And you know two reasons not to feel too sorry for me while I wait for Bella.

SCOUT: Two unforgettable reasons. … OK, thanks.

WILL: But if you’re not sure about Lena … don’t let me push you. We can survive a term or two of not rooming together. I love you, Bella loves you … none of that’s going to change.

SCOUT (nodding, standing): Thanks. I need to get going.

WILL (thoughtfully, lying back down): Why now, Scout?

SCOUT: You have to ask?

WILL (smiling): I mean, why did Ham tell you about the red-hots now? Why not months ago?

SCOUT (going to his dresser, grooming): Oh … He didn’t say. Why didn’t you tell me months ago?

WILL: That all my life I’d loved a girl who didn’t love me back? It was so embarrassing, so pathetic, so … Dawson Leery.

SCOUT: Who?

WILL: Never mind. Not important.

SCOUT (leaning back against his dresser): You did try to tell me, didn’t you? You tried the first day of summer session, with that wisecrack about lusting after a three-hundred pound school nurse instead of Bella. I just wouldn’t take the hint.

WILL: I was in no position to do more than hint, guy.

SCOUT: I know. But it’s not pathetic, it’s inspiring. You saved a girl from despair of love, Will.

WILL: Scout, we were six years old.

SCOUT: And she remembers. She told you so ten years later – to let you know she was falling in love with you.

WILL: Because we were with Jacqueline and Ham – on an accidental double date with them.

SCOUT: Because when you lost your scholarship, she first felt for you what you’ve felt for her since she lost her mom. She first felt passion for you when she first felt compassion for you – when you first needed her the way she’s needed you for ten years.

WILL: But she wouldn’t have understood what she was feeling if we hadn’t been doubling with blindingly clear proof that it’s possible for passion to grow out of compassion.

SCOUT: If she needed Jake and Ham to make her believe it’s possible, so what? It’s still true love.

WILL: Scout, if you need to think of Bella and me as a true love story – I just hope we don’t disappoint you too often. … How did the red-hots come up Thursday evening?

SCOUT: Ham pulled me aside at the girl's school, after we’d all been talking with some townie guys, while he and Mark were waiting to go join Lena and Jacqueline.

WILL: He pulled you away from Alice and Jan and Mark, just to tell it to you, alone?

SCOUT: Yeh. A Thanksgiving gift – you.

WILL (after a pause, blushing slightly): Before he knew the apology to Lena would work?

SCOUT: Yes, why?

WILL: He told you a love story, Scout. About Bella and me. He wouldn’t do that unless he thinks you’ve got another girl to love. One who could get you over Bella. One who’s right for you.

SCOUT: Well, yeh. He was about to free Lena up.

WILL: He was about to try. … But you’d just told him about your Thanksgiving at the Banks’, hadn’t you?

SCOUT: Uh … yeh.

WILL: About Grace.

SCOUT: Yes, but … Ham can’t be suggesting I think about her that way.

WILL: Do you, whatever-it is-you-may-be-to-her?

SCOUT: Yes and no. What she is, no. What she might become, yes. After yesterday evening, and Thursday evening, and even Wednesday afternoon, I can’t not. But I shouldn’t.

WILL: Why?

SCOUT (after a pause): Because to give her what she needs would be _soooo_ hard …

WILL: Ah. … Whereas true love should be easy?

SCOUT: Not that hard.

WILL: “The reward of service is to be called to harder service.”

SCOUT (growling): Krudski …

WILL: Wanna talk about it?

SCOUT (shaking his head): No. … (Mimicking WILL:) “It’s so embarrassing, so pathetic, so …”

WILL: Dawson Leery?

SCOUT: Whatever. … I’m due at the diner. Where, please remember, I’m to serve you lunch. (He walks toward WILL’s bed, holds out a hand, beckons with it for WILL to give him his shirt and sweater.)

WILL (ignoring SCOUT’s request): I’ll be there. … And Scout, thanks for the red-hots.

SCOUT: You’re welcome.

WILL (fondling the bag of candy): They’re cute, aren’t they?

(SCOUT cringes.)

WILL: Sort of heart-shaped. … Valentine’s Day candies, back in grade school. Same where you were?

SCOUT: Yeh, so?

WILL: Wasn’t it customary to kiss the person you gave them to?

SCOUT: They were girls, Will.

WILL: Gotta love tradition, Scout.

SCOUT: Sit up.

(WILL complies. SCOUT leans down, grabs WILL’s head in an armlock, lifts WILL’s face to his own.)

SCOUT (softly): If you needed it, you wouldn’t have to ask.

WILL (equally softly): I know.

(SCOUT smacks a big sloppy wet kiss on WILL’s cheek, grabs his shirt and sweater from behind WILL’s pillow, pulls them on. WILL settles happily back onto his pillow, arms behind his head.)

SCOUT (walking to his bed, grabbing his jacket and scarf): See ya at lunch. … (Walking toward the door, pulling on his jacket:) Finn asked me to ask you to meet Lena and him in his suite at noon. Said that if you’d like to come earlier, he’d be happy to fry you some eggs and drub you at chess. (He takes _Little Women_ off his nightstand.)

WILL: Did he? Think I should let him win for a change?

SCOUT (opening the door, looking back): Will, I think he’ll have won if you just show up.

 

*       *       *

 


	8. Scene 4 - Trying to take over the world

EXT – NEW RAWLEY INN, DAY 5 – SATURDAY (DAY - MORNING)

 

Establishing shot of the Inn’s front door, its book-and-crowns signboard above it, the three diversely colored ears of maize still hanging on it. A little of the snow has melted, and icicles now hang, dripping, from the roof.

 

 

INT – NEW RAWLEY INN, SAUNA, DAY 1 – TUESDAY (AFTERNOON)

 

(A sauna room with wooden benches. A round window, centered at eye level, overlooks the thawing lake, a few snow-covered trees in the foreground. HAMILTON, MARK, JAKE and ANNE enter in guest robes. MARK locks the door from the inside with a key.)

JAKE: It’s freezing.

HAMILTON: It’s winter.

ANNE (flipping a wall switch): It’ll get warmer.

MARK (pocketing the key, pulling his lower lip back under his upper teeth to mimic an overbite, trying to sound thickly wacky): Gee, Anne, what do ya wanna do this morning?

ANNE (deadpan, in a dispassionate monotone): The same thing we do every Saturday morning, Mark – [try to take over the world](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzZmU0aGmcc).

(JAKE and HAMILTON grin at each other.)

ANNE (pulling in behind JAKE and turning her to face the window): Mark, if we can make love to Jacqueline so well that every girl wants to cross-dress in order to be loved that well, nothing will be able to stop me in my quest to rule the earth. Jackie and I will be the only girls left who look like girls. All the boys will be our slaves.

MARK (pulling HAMILTON close to JAKE, facing her): But they’re still in school, Anne.

ANNE (loosening the belt of JAKE’s robe): Rome wasn’t built in a day, Mark. When the boys finish school, and college, and grad school … and their internships and residencies … or get partnerships or tenure ... then – if we’re still alive – we’ll take over the world.

(Our ever-discreet camera views the rest of this scene only from the waist up and from behind Anne, both girls facing the window and the lake in the background.)

MARK (slowly sliding JAKE’s robe off her): But what about if there’s a binder shortage, Anne?

ANNE (helping MARK): Mmmm ... Temporary. Supply eventually responds to demand.

MARK: What about if Lilly Pulitzer comes out with a new line that every girl wants to wear?

ANNE (tossing JAKE’s robe on a bench): Won’t happen. Lilly can make a fortune selling pink and green dinner jackets.

HAMILTON (grimacing): Ewww ...

MARK (pulling in behind HAMILTON, loosening his belt): What about if Hamilton starts running around and kissing the cross-dressing girls and turning them back into girls that look like girls?

ANNE: We’ll keep Hamilton here in a room at the Inn. Room service every meal. He need never leave. We’ll just keep him in bed forever.

MARK (disrobing HAMILTON): Gee, Anne, can you do that and rule the world, too?

ANNE: No, that’s Jacqueline’s job. And yours, Mark – Jackie has to sleep sometime. The rest of the burden of world domination, I’ll selflessly shoulder myself. So how do we make love to Jacqueline so well that every girl in the world wants to cross-dress?

MARK (tossing HAMILTON’s robe on the bench, pulling in behind ANNE): Mmmm ... it gets Jacqueline hot when somebody makes love to you.

(HAMILTON begins to nuzzle and fondle JAKE.)

ANNE: Please, Mark. That could be part of it. But that’s not enough.

MARK (sliding ANNE’s robe off): So what’s the plan, Anne?

ANNE: Can’t you think of anything, Mark?

MARK (pondering, then looking brainlessly happy): Uh ... We take Jacqueline and Hamilton back to our room, and you take off his clothes while I take off her clothes? (He tosses ANNE’s robe on the bench, .)

ANNE (nuzzling and caressing JAKE from behind): Well, that seems a logical enough start ...

MARK (warming to his theme): While Hamilton takes off your clothes and Jacqueline takes of my clothes ... (He returns to JAKE’s front, beside HAMILTON.)

ANNE: Uh -huh ...

MARK (quickly shedding his own robe): And then you and Jackie take off each other’s clothes while Ham and I take off each other’s clothes ...

ANNE: Mark, aren’t we already naked?

MARK (crestfallen, tossing his robe on the bench): Oh ... I get confused sometimes. (He joins HAMILTON and ANNE in warming JAKE up.)

HAMILTON: Mmmm ... Don’t we all?

JAKE (moaning softly, wrapping an arm around each boy): Yeh ...

ANNE: I know. Everybody but me gets confused sometimes. ... (She turns JAKE’s head back, kisses her deeply. Breaking off:) That’s why I’m going to rule the world, Mark. And I know just how to do it. I’ve had a vision. A dream.

MARK: Did it come through the gate of horn?

ANNE: Well, it was horny.

MARK: Then it must be true, Anne. (He pulls HAMILTON’s mouth to JAKE’s.)

ANNE: It came to me three weekends ago at Grottlesex. I dreamed that Jacqueline and I were visited by two very large mice, who looked a lot like Hamilton and you. And those mice showed us that two mice could use their lingams ...

MARK: Lingams? What’s that, Anne?

ANNE: That’s Sanskrit, Mark.

MARK: Mmmm ... We’re not all _Kama Sutra_ scholars.

ANNE: Their cucumbers. Like the one between Hamilton’s legs.

MARK: Isn’t a cucumber that small called a gherkin?

HAMILTON (briefly breaking off): Been to London lately, Yankee Doodle?

ANNE: ... that two mice who cooperate, patiently, can use their ... gherkins ... to work wonders on two girls that one mouse could never do with one girl.

MARK: Wonders? Miracles? Like plagues of boils, and lice, and frogs crawling out of all the rivers and being in your bed when you wake up?

ANNE: No, not quite like that.

MARK: Like manna falling from heaven?

ANNE: Mmmm ... More like that.

MARK: Like the sun standing still so that the good guys have time to punish the bad guys really thoroughly?

ANNE: Yeh ... a lot like that.

(JAKE arches and moans her agreement.)

MARK: Gee, Anne, how?

ANNE: Well first the Mark-mouse and Jacqueline and the Hamilton-mouse and I rolled about on the bed a bit, just to get reacquainted.

MARK: “Reacquainted”? You dream about mice a lot?

ANNE: Uh-huh. Then the Hamilton-mouse laid me down and slowly ran his hands and tongue over every inch of my body. I think the Mark-mouse was doing the same thing to Jacqueline, but I wasn’t paying much attention to that.

MARK: Inattentive? That’s not like you, Anne.

ANNE: Mmmm ... Nobody’s perfect, Mark. But pretty soon Jacqueline and I couldn’t take any more of that, and rolled the mice over, and did the same thing to them.

MARK: Licked them all over? Gee, Anne, wasn’t that kinda ... furry?

ANNE: They were lab mice, Mark. Hairless, pretty much. Just sort of light pink skin ... some bits a little pinker than the rest.

MARK: Mmmm ... Like the tails?

ANNE: Kinda cute. Occasionally useful.

MARK: And the pink eyeballs?

ANNE: Ugh ... (Recovering, continuing): They must have been wearing tinted contacts. Maybe they were Hollywood lab mice.

MARK: Did they bring their camera crews?

ANNE: No!

MARK: Narf! Why do you always bop me on the head, Anne? Isn’t gratuitous violence beneath you?

ANNE: That’s not gratuitous, it’s involuntary. And that’s not your head.

MARK: It’s what I think with.

ANNE: That’s why I’m the one with the plan to take over the world, boy.

MARK: Well, you better come up with a better one than that dream. I do better than that with my girlfriend all by myself.

ANNE: Mmmm ... you do. But there’s more. Lots more.

MARK: More merry mousiness at Grottlesex? Do tell.

(On all four bodies, beads of sweat are forming, hair starting to mat. The sauna seems to be heating up.)

ANNE: Then the Mark-mouse took me from the Hamilton-mouse, and he took Jacqueline from the Mark-mouse, and somehow, suddenly, it was even better. So much better that it seemed like we were all showing off to each other how good it was. Sorta shameless ...

MARK: And then the mice asked for some cheese?

ANNE (slowly): And then they got serious. ... (Taking the cue, HAMILTON and MARK join her in getting more serious with JAKE:) First the Hamilton-mouse made love to Jacqueline, while the Mark-mouse and I lay on both sides of her and helped.

MARK: That’s not new, Anne.

ANNE: But before he was finished, the Hamilton-mouse rolled off her and traded places with the Mark-mouse, who made love to Jacqueline the same way, and, he, too, rolled off her before he was finished. And the two mice kept doing that, again and again, until Jacqueline whimpered that she couldn’t take any more.

MARK: Mmmm … And then they got their cheese?

ANNE: And then the two mice did the same thing to me while Jacqueline helped, until I begged them to stop.

MARK: Don’t these mice ever get their cheese?

ANNE (in JAKE’s ear, almost whispering): And then they put me on the edge of the bed, and laid Jacqueline on top of me, face to face, and one mouse held us and nuzzled us while the other mouse took Jackie from behind. I felt, almost as much as she did, everything that he was doing to her. The mice took turns doing that, while Jacqueline and I made love to each other, until Jackie begged them to stop.

MARK (to JAKE:) Mmmm ... should we stop?

JAKE (eyes closed): No!

ANNE: Then they rolled us over, so that I was on top on of Jackie, and took turns doing to me what they’d been doing to her, until I couldn’t take anymore, either. So then they rolled Jackie and me over again, and again, each time shorter because each time Jacqueline or I could take less and less, until neither of us could take any more.

MARK: Cheese, please.

ANNE: Yeh. ... (She lightens her attentions to JAKE – HAMILTON and MARK following suit.) ... After that, they laid Jacqueline and me next to each other, and lay beside us, and held us, and kissed us, and looked into our eyes, until we were ready again. Then went into us so slowly, so gently, all relaxed, and let Jacqueline and me … give them their cheese.

MARK (sighing with relief): Finally!

(JAKE whimpers in frustration.)

ANNE: So, Mark, are you pondering what I’m pondering?

MARK: I think so, Anne. That a lot of great old cartoon reruns are on TV this morning, and that we could all watch them in your room? ... But oh wait but no ... Narf!

ANNE: No Mark. I’m pondering whether you and Hamilton, this morning, could do anything like what those two mice did at Grottlesex three weeks ago. Think you could?

MARK: Gee, maybe, Anne. If you talk us through it. It sounded complicated, and I forget.

ANNE: Hamilton’s memory might be better. Maybe you could just ... follow his lead?

MARK: Maybe.

(All four bodies are now fully sweat-sheened, hair matted, dripping. The sauna seems fully heated.)

HAMILTON: Mmmm ... There’ll be a slight departure from your dream-program this morning, Anne.

ANNE: Really? Something new?

HAMILTON: Yes. ... After you and Jacqueline both think you can’t take any more ... the Dean’s son has a message for Jacqueline from his father. Something disciplinary.

(HAMILTON flicks his tongue, now lightly, now firmly, along from the base of JAKE’s throat to her chin, across her neck to below an ear, then back to the base of her throat again, sucking and pulling gently at all three stopping points.)

MARK (to JAKE): Oh dear ... you’ve been cheeky?

JAKE (whimpering): A little ...

ANNE: And the Dean entrusts discipline to Hamilton?

JAKE: Some ...

ANNE (intensifying the pace again): Then maybe I should be cheeky, too. ... Scout and Will are nice, Jackie. Would you like to cox them again, rowing behind Ham, shirtless? Do they all give you their best, girl? Do they drive and recover and even breathe as one? Do their oars all enter and leave the water together, smoothly, silently, their chests and arms pulling you toward them ... all one body ... for you?

JAKE: Mmmm ...

MARK: Do you like how your stroke reads you? Does he do it well? Before you voice a command, has he already felt it and begun to obey it? Does the slightest movement of your eyes, your lips, your fingers, change the rate or pressure of his stroke? Does your will flow through Hamilton, to Will, to Scout, as they follow his response to you ... slower when you want ... faster when you want?

JAKE (arching): Faster ...

HAMILTON: Do you like punishing us? Making us stroke faster, harder, longer? Making us sweat and strain and ache? Do you like it when our eyes all gaze helplessly into yours, pleading for mercy? Do you like denying it to us, driving us to do more, always more?

JAKE (caressing HAMILTON’s and MARK’s heads reflexively): More ...

MARK: Would you like to do it in just shorts and a halter, the breeze licking your skin? With me in the shell behind Scout and Will and Ham? All our eyes stripping you as we stroke and sweat and ache for you? Would you like Ham to see what he does to you? The way you see what you do to him each time he drives his oar? Would you like do that to all of us? Every day … all of us ... in agony ... for you?

JAKE (bucking, clutching): Hamilton? Hamilton?

(MARK slides to JAKE’s side.)

HAMILTON (pulling in full frontal, slowly thrusting): Here, Jake.

JAKE (shuddering): Oh god ...

HAMILTON: Shhh ...

ANNE (softly, into JAKE’s ear): Jackie ... I’ll apply to transfer to Rawley with you. No further persuasion needed.

(HAMILTON, MARK and ANNE hold JAKE and nuzzle her softly, easing her down, waiting. ANNE removes a hand from JAKE, offers it to MARK to lick. After a moment, JAKE, recovering, turns her head back to ANNE, raises an arm to caress her head, kisses her slowly, deeply.)

JAKE (to ANNE, breaking off): Thank you.

ANNE: Thank Ham’s parents, and Dr. Hotchkiss, and Will and Scout and Bella, girl. I’m not coming just for Mark, and you, and Ham. If it were just the four of us, we’d get kinda lonely.

JAKE (smiling): Yeh, we would.

ANNE (softly): But I would come, just for you. And if you can’t come, I’ll stay with you.

MARK: And I don’t want Anne here without you. I don’t want any of us to have to be alone, ever.

HAMILTON: None of us will be.

(HAMILTON, MARK, JAKE and ANNE look into one another’s eyes for a moment.)

MARK (resuming his overbite and wacky tone): So Anne, how are we gonna tell ‘em?

ANNE: Tell who? What?

MARK: Tell all the girls how well we love Jacqueline. Are ya gonna film it and put it on television? ... Narf!

ANNE (resuming her deadpan monotone): They don’t show things like that on television, Mark. At least, not on channels teenage girls are usually allowed to watch.

MARK: So what’s the plan, Anne?

ANNE (sighing): It’s obvious, Mark. We have Krudski write it up and publish it. I mean, he’s doing that anyhow, right?

JAKE: Not if he wants to have children.

ANNE: He won’t need children, Jackie, he’ll have readers.

MARK: But Anne, if Will writes it, he’ll bury all the great sex under a pile of arcane allusions to ancient myths and literary classics, and frame it in philosophical platitudes, and tell it from some weird cryptic perspective, so that no teen-aged girls will buy it, much less understand that it’s really supposed to be a mindless sex story for hormonal girls. Nobody will ever really understand it.

ANNE: The smart girls will, Mark. And the smart boys who won’t be able to find smart girlfriends who look like girls are all we need to take over the world.

MARK: Anne, the only people who’ll read it will be overeducated geezers so old they never think about sex, like Dr. Hotchkiss. ... Although maybe you could get it broadcast on some TV network for overeducated geezers. BBC maybe? _Brideshead_ fans might like it.

HAMILTON: Uh ... I sorta thought you and I were _Brideshead_ fans, Mark.

MARK: We are, but we’re exceptional. That’s why we’re at Rawley, right? ... But, uh, Ham, are we Ryder fans, too?

HAMILTON: No.

MARK: Oh ... like I said, I get confused sometimes.

HAMILTON: Yeh, you do. ... Have you looked at our Latin reading for next week yet?

MARK: No, why?

HAMILTON: _Ars Amatoria_ , book two.

MARK: Oh. ... But Dr. Hotchkiss is exceptional, too.

HAMILTON: Very exceptional.

MARK: So we’re still screwed. Maybe you should write it yourself, Anne.

(MARK smiles sweetly at JAKE, who stares coldly at ANNE.)

ANNE (looking at JAKE): Uh ... maybe not.

MARK: Back to the drawing board, Anne?

ANNE: Not quite. The first thing is to do it. We can worry about how to tell about it later.

MARK: Yeh, maybe if we do it well enough, it’ll just kinda tell itself somehow.

ANNE: Another Rawley miracle?

MARK (to HAMILTON): Ryder’s gotta be good for something.

HAMILTON: Don’t hold your breath.

MARK (picking up a robe, holding it for ANNE): So, Anne, what’ll we do tomorrow morning?

ANNE (sliding into the robe): Same thing we do every Sunday morning, Mark. Try to take over the world.

 

*       *       *


	9. Scene 5 - Chariot of fire

INT – RAWLEY BOYS’, DEAN’S OFFICE. DAY 5 – SATURDAY (DAY - MORNING).

 

(DEAN Fleming, in tweed sport jacket and sweater-vest, stands at the window behind his desk, watching snow sculptures rise on the campus. His computer is on, some work on it in progress. RYDER, in jeans, a white dress shirt and tassel loafers, knocks on the open door connecting the office to its anteroom.)

DEAN: Come in.

(RYDER enters.)

DEAN (turning, but remaining behind his desk, and not extending a hand): Ah, Mr. Ryder. Good of you to come on such short notice. Shut the door, please.

(RYDER complies.)

DEAN: A fine morning, isn’t it? Ryder, if you find work that you enjoy even half so much as I enjoy mine, you’ll be a lucky man. Do you know why I enjoy it?

RYDER: No, sir, I don’t.

DEAN: Neither do I, really. But I suspect it has to do with the students. With young people. I rather like them.

(RYDER smiles blandly.)

DEAN: Sadly, my fondness for my work has led me to neglect my family. Including my wife. But that’s my fault, not hers. And among the young people at this school, I’m particularly fond of my own son. I don’t take it kindly when someone tries, repeatedly, to harm him.

(RYDER’s smile vanishes.)

DEAN: You know, when someone tells me that a video camera may be broken, as you did once last summer, I check to see whether it in fact is broken. When I do, I see what’s on the tape. And if it concerns me, I keep that tape.

(RYDER looks at the DEAN as a deer looks at the headlights of an oncoming truck.)

DEAN: And that’s not the only tape I’ve seen, Ryder. Last summer, after a motorbike disappeared from the storeroom, the groundskeeper insisted that we install a motion-activated surveillance camera down there. Infrared, the kind that takes pictures even in the dark.

(The DEAN sits down behind his desk, takes one of the altered calendars out of a drawer, opens it to RYDER’s insert, lays it on the desk facing RYDER.)

DEAN: The tape from that camera Wednesday night shows that this is your work, Ryder. None of your altered calendars was distributed. Still, you attempted to damage the school’s relations with our host community by distributing an erotic photograph of a former student without her consent and under school auspices.

(RYDER stares at the calendar photo.)

DEAN: Were this brought to the attention of the Board, I fear they might insist that you leave us permanently. And that a description of the circumstances of your departure accompany any transcript sent to another school.

RYDER: Mightn’t that compromise Miss Pratt’s gender deception, sir?

DEAN: No, Ryder. That’s over. Miss Pratt has been enrolled at her current school as a girl all this term. And my wife and I have been aware of her true gender for some time, as you seemed to intuit Thursday. Today, this whole school will be made aware of it. And that has nothing to do with anything you’ve done, Ryder. You and most other Rawley students are simply among the last to know.

(RYDER’s face hardens, defiant in defeat.)

DEAN: But as you seem well aware, Ryder, the most straightforward use of information is sometimes not its most gratifying use.

RYDER (warily): So what are you going to do?

DEAN: Let’s talk about what you might do. I believe I mentioned that my work has sometimes led me to neglect my family? Perhaps you might relieve me of some of it. I could use a personal assistant.

RYDER: To do what?

DEAN: Among other things, to interact with other students in ways that adult staff can’t. A bit like a prefect at one of your British schools, in that you’ll be intimately associated with authority in the eyes of the other students. But unlike that in that you won’t actually have any, since, should you step out of line even slightly, you’ll be out of here so fast it will make your head spin.

(The DEAN returns the calendar to his desk drawer.)

DEAN: Workdays, except when in class, you’ll be at my beck and call, seated at the spare desk in the anteroom to this office. You will be here, dressed in jacket and tie, when I arrive in the morning, and remain until I leave in the evening.

(RYDER grimaces.)

DEAN: You will accompany me to school athletic and social events. Evenings and weekends, in the dorm, you will check in daily with Finn and perform such tasks as he may assign you. There’s a small vacant single room adjoining his suite. A servant’s quarters, once upon a time. You’ll move into it. Today.

(The DEAN pauses while RYDER contemplates his future.)

DEAN: And you will maintain a grade of ‘B’ or better in each of your courses. I’ve arranged for your completion of your course assignments to be monitored by another student who will report to me, and will contact you shortly. Any tutoring you may require, I shall provide myself.

(RYDER arches an eyebrow.)

DEAN: Will that be satisfactory, Mr. Ryder?

RYDER: I don’t really have any choice, do I?

DEAN: On the contrary, you have nothing but choices. And that’s not the question you should be asking.

RYDER: What is?

DEAN: You should be asking who knows, and who will know, that you put photos of Miss Pratt into those calendars.

RYDER: Alright. Who does? And who will?

DEAN: Only Mr. Haggerty, you and I, although my wife will know. In theory, Miss Pratt and my son have a right to know. But Ryder, if my son or other students find out, I can’t answer for your physical safety here, and you’ll have to leave. Do you think I overstate the problem?

RYDER: No, sir.

DEAN: So all that has been told to Finn, and all anyone else will be told, is that you inserted some lascivious photos into those calendars. And when you leave this office, Ryder, you will take Mr. Haggerty with you, and destroy with him every physical or electronic form of every photo of Miss Pratt to which you have access. Understood?

RYDER: Yes, sir.

DEAN: Good. ... (He turns briefly to his computer and punches a few keys.) ... Notice of your new role has just been posted on the school LAN.

RYDER: Why don’t you just turf me out and have done with it?

DEAN: It’s hard to know why one does what one does. Do you know why you do what you do, Ryder?

RYDER: No.

DEAN: Maybe I just feel thankful. You ever feel that way?

RYDER: Rarely.

DEAN: Try it. ... Mr. Haggerty is expecting a call from you. Phone him and wait for him in my anteroom. When you’re done with him, Finn has the key to your new dorm room for you. And instructions for an errand I’d like you to run for me today. I’ll see you here at eight-thirty Monday morning.

RYDER (coldly): Thanks.

(RYDER turns crisply, walks to the anteroom, picks up the black dial phone on the desk with the cookie jar. Two net-mesh bags, each containing a bottle of white burgundy, a loaf of home-baked bread in a clear plastic bag, a wheel of brie, and several CDs, also sit atop the desk. In one bag, the top CD is a Sarah McLachlan album; in the other, a Bob Dylan album. RYDER begins to dial.)

DEAN (turning to work at his computer): And Forrest, have a biscuit. You’re all skin and bones, boy.

 

*       *       * 


	10. Scene 6 - Training wheels

INT - GROUNDSKEEPER’S STOREROOM, RAWLEY BOYS’, DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAY - MORNING).

(The cellar room is dim, lit only by ceiling windows. The storeroom is much as it was Wednesday evening, except that the door to the adjoining GROUNDSKEEPER's office is open, and only one large crate remains below the staircase. The crate is open, its lid and a crowbar next to it. The GROUNDSKEEPER, plaid parka open, scarf hanging loose, hunting cap stuffed in a parka pocket, stands by the crate, holding and closing a small cardboard box identical to those that, save for one gap, fill the crate.)

GROUNDSKEEPER (turning to the camera): You again? ... Well of course. I’m the hero. Ain’t pretty, must be here for somethin’. ... Hamilton? No, he’s - somethin’ else.

(The freight elevator door opens. RYDER emerges, pushing an empty hand truck dolly, sweating, his shirt hanging loose over his jeans.)

GROUNDSKEEPER (pointing, with his free hand, at the crate): This one’s not for the trash bin, Ryder. Take it to the common room.

(As RYDER, grumbling under his breath, fastens the lid back onto the crate, the GROUNDSKEEPER walks into his office.  The camera follows.  On the television in the office, [the end of the final episode of season 1 of _The O.C._](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMGyl-l3qqc) plays on low sound volume.  Seen through the glass partition, RYDER belts the crate to the dolly.)

GROUNDSKEEPER (to the camera): What? ... No, I knew whose bike it was. The things have license plates. Took a few days to find out, though, and by then it’d disappeared. ... Where? God knows. The way the Dean says Krudski tells the story, Pratt's bike’s not heard of again till the day Hamilton told her he loved her. And Hamilton was driving. ... (Grinning:) But then, Krudski’s a sucker for symbolism.

(Through the partition, the camera pans in on RYDER, wheeling the dolly to the freight elevator, then back out and onto the GROUNDSKEEPER.)

GROUNDSKEEPER (turning to watch RYDER): Ryder? He won’t be missed. Bad guys are just training wheels. When you get the hang of it, you don’t need ‘em.

(The camera pans in on the box in the GROUNDSKEEPER’s hand, then back out again.)

GROUNDSKEEPER: This? ... (Raising the box slightly:) Just a little something for the missus. It won’t be missed, either. ... (Holding the open door to the store room suggestively:) Good-day to ya.  

(The camera goes back into the storeroom.  The GROUNDSKEEPER closes the door to his office, sits down to watch the television, turns up the volume.)

 

*       *       *


	11. Scene 7 - Twelfth Night

INT – RAWLEY INN, ANNE’S ROOM. DAY 5, SATURDAY (DAY - MORNING).

 

(A second-floor room in the older part of the Inn, centered on a king-size bed, with two windows overlooking the Common set in a wall to one side of the bed. The furnishings and wall hangings recall early nineteenth-century New England.

A room service cart, bearing the remnants of a breakfast for four, rests near a small table flanked by two comb-backed chairs on the side of the room opposite the windows. Four spa robes are draped over those two chairs. No other discarded clothing is seen.

On the window side of the bed, HAMILTON and MARK lie quietly, face up, glistening with sweat, HAMILTON at the edge of the bed, MARK’s head on his arm, looking into each other’s eyes in what seems to be a post-coital reverie. JAKE lies atop HAMILTON, ANNE atop MARK, each girl resting her head on her boy’s chest, looking up at his face, sweat pooling in the small of her back. Each boy’s outer hand ruffles his girl’s hair in reflexive appreciation. Of course, the bed sheets are pulled high enough to keep our ever-discreet camera from showing anything unduly embarrassing.

The half of the bed farther from the window looks almost undisturbed, empty save for JAKE’s unzipped backpack, set against a pile of all four pillows.)

HAMILTON (purring): That was different ...

MARK: Yeh, and so much better ...

HAMILTON: Than what you and I did three weeks ago? Way better ...

ANNE: Jackie and I tried to stay on script, but the urge to improvise can be overpowering.

MARK: Improvise, my ass. You girls plot wickedness during the week and practice it on weekends.

ANNE (grinning): You guys don’t? I mean, this wasn’t really all that premeditated.

JAKE: Just inspired ... by what you two do for us.

ANNE: Helping us to apologize to each other, and forgive each other, for thinking about one of you while the other one of us makes love to her when you’re not around.

JAKE: ‘Cause you both know, too well, how much we need to do that – and for you to be part of it.

ANNE: This was the closest we could come to doing the same thing for you.

(The boys look at each other, disturbed, then pull their girls up to face them, caress their heads.)

MARK: Anne, it was great for Ham and me. But I just treated you, and Ham just treated Jackie, the same way we treat each other during the week.

HAMILTON (to JAKE): And two wrongs don’t make a right.

JAKE: Hamilton, we don’t get to choose between right and wrong. Just between more wrong and less wrong. That’s been true ever since I came to Rawley pretending to be a boy. “Right” won’t be an option for us till next year.

ANNE: What you guys did the first time we were all together ... Jackie and I made that happen, and we loved it. It was affectionate and guilt-free, because you weren’t standing in for us with each other yet. But what you guys did the last time we were together was scary. The guilt each of you felt for ignoring the other while he made love to you, during the weeks, made it way too intense, didn’t it?

MARK: It freaked us out, and you know why. It was, like, totally gay. Everything we’d been building up but trying to repress just spilled out. It meant what we were doing wasn’t working.

JAKE: Right, it wasn’t. So how do you guys feel now? Less gay than you felt three weeks ago?

MARK: Way less.

ANNE: But just as free of the guilt?

HAMILTON: To each other, yeh, but now that’s not the problem.

ANNE: Right, the problem is that it’s not perfect. Or maybe the problem is that Rawley guys can’t deal with less than perfect. But this year, while Jackie and I are at Grottlesex, perfect is not an option.

JAKE: Can you guys can think of something less wrong that does the job? ‘Cause Anne and I couldn’t.

HAMILTON (to MARK): Not premeditated at all.

MARK (to HAMILTON): Yeh, totally spontaneous. But they’re right.

HAMILTON: Yeh, they are. How come they can think better than us, Mark?

MARK: ‘Cause they don’t wanna have sex all the time the way we do, Ham. You know - sugar, spice, everything nice?

JAKE: Lotsa laughs. The question is whether you monuments of masculinity can adjust your self-images to our reality. Which, admittedly, kinda sucks.

ANNE: Can you see that the problem is the situation, not you?

JAKE: Actually, the problem is what I was. That’s what’s made this situation. But Hamilton, ever since the night of the cotillion, you’ve always given me what I needed to grow better than that. And what I need now is still the same thing I needed then. I need you to stop worrying about bein’ manly and just love me.

MARK (to ANNE): Ya know, I always thought that was kinda manly. But like I said, I get confused sometimes.

ANNE: Yeh, so do I.

(MARK and ANNE kiss and start to make out.)

JAKE (gently nuzzling HAMILTON’s chest): So can my tower of testosterone deal with this?

HAMILTON (caressing JAKE’s head): I never knew there were so many ways not to be manly. As soon as I get used to one, you make me wrap my head around a new one.

JAKE: So I’m still messing with your head.

HAMILTON: What did I ever do to you to deserve it?

JAKE: You kissed me, boy.

HAMILTON: Yeh, I did. (He kisses JAKE.)

JAKE (breaking off sooner than HAMILTON would like): Aren’t you in enough trouble already?

HAMILTON: I think I could handle more ...

JAKE (shifting back to his chest): Maybe ... but I’ll give you time to wrap your head around it.

ANNE (breaking off, to MARK): Poor boy only got one kiss.

MARK: Sad, isn’t it?

ANNE: Feeling lonely, Ham?

HAMILTON: Terribly. Console me?

(MARK rolls over, putting ANNE under him on HAMILTON’s arm. ANNE and HAMILTON kiss … and keep on kissing).

MARK (lightly tonguing one of ANNE’s breasts): Feel like saying "thank you" to somebody, Jackie?

JAKE (nuzzling the side of one of HAMILTON’s pectorals): Yeh, and the Dean is cute, but he’s kinda spoken for.

MARK: He is. Think you could say thank you to Ham? For me?

JAKE: Mmmm ... Maybe. What for?

MARK: Helping me apologize to Liz.

JAKE: Only if I get to see her this weekend. I need to apologize to her, too.

MARK: You don’t. And she’s kinda preoccupied.

JAKE: With what?

MARK (shifting to ANNE’s other breast): Sean McGrail.

JAKE (happy): Your sister and Will's best friend?

MARK: And Scout's ex with Bella's. Healing, not just binding - for all of us. 

JAKE: No lie. It's brilliant. How'd it happen?

MARK: Sean was on campus Wednesday morning to bring the Dean the Thanksgiving invitations from the Edmund High families. His mom’s the PTA president. So your boyfriend introduced him to my sister.

JAKE: Hammy, you didn’t?

(HAMILTON turns from ANNE to JAKE, grins, nods. JAKE starts to slide up to kiss him. He holds her where she is, begging her to continue what she’s doing. JAKE grins and complies. HAMILTON goes back to kissing ANNE.)

MARK: Not very talkative, are they?

JAKE: No. Think they need a lesson in manners?

MARK: Mmmm ... Couldn’t hurt.

JAKE: So tell me about Liz and Sean.

MARK (neglecting ANNE): They spent most of Wednesday together. By evening, at our poetry reading, his shirt was off and she was all over him.

JAKE: Mmmm ... Thursday?

MARK: Sean had his mom call the Dean to ask Liz to be sent to the McGrails’ for Thanksgiving dinner.

JAKE: How’d that go?

MARK (as ANNE pulls his head back down to her): Well. Liz likes Sean’s family. Thinks they like her. And she wasn’t the only Rawley kid there.

JAKE: The McGrails took two?

MARK: Seems PTA rank has its privileges. Liz and a third-year guy who’s been seeing Sean’s older sister.

JAKE: Did Sean’s mom ask for him too?

MARK: Mmmm ... no, the Dean sent him there.

JAKE (neglecting HAMILTON): Hammy, does your dad keep a file on that kind of thing?

HAMILTON (without breaking off from ANNE): Only when they’re caught after hours.

JAKE: And your dad sent him anyhow? That’s so sweet!

(HAMILTON arches and pulls JAKE’s head back down to his chest.)

JAKE: So what did Sean and Liz do yesterday?

MARK (again neglecting ANNE): Cross-country skiing.

JAKE: Mmmm ... And today?

MARK: While I tell Liz about us, Anne’ll bring Sean up to speed. Then Sean hopes to bed Liz.

JAKE: Optimistic?

MARK (pulled down harder this time): Very.

JAKE (again neglecting HAMILTON): So maybe I should reward Hammy?

MARK: Until Liz and Sean are ready to reward you and him themselves.

JAKE (pulled down again): Only if you and Anne will join us.

MARK (yet again neglecting ANNE): With my twin sister? That'd sorta ... cramp my style.

JAKE: Mmmm ... We all have to make sacrifices.

MARK (pulled down even harder): It's not happening.  

JAKE (yet again neglecting HAMILTON): Pity. I think Anne could get into a ripped blond hunk who’s a total sweetheart.

MARK: I think if Ham’s there, she’d just keep kissing him and never notice who’s on top of her.

JAKE (pulled down again so hard that she mumbles): What do you think, Anne?

ANNE (not breaking off from HAMILTON): I think anything that would get you two to stop talking would be good.

JAKE: OK, then ... (Softly, while slowly pushing onto HAMILTON:) For Liz, Hamilton. And for me. Thank you.

HAMILTON (opening his eyes, breaking off from ANNE): Oh god ... (He looks into JAKE’s eyes, pulls her lips to his – and deprives MARK of his conversation partner.)

ANNE (to MARK): Well?

MARK: Have you done any good deeds lately, Anne?

JAKE (briefly pulling her mouth free of HAMILTON’s): She did cut my hair for me.

MARK: Is abetting gender deception a good deed?

ANNE: No, but you might stop me from doing another wicked one.

MARK: Anything to help save a troubled soul. (He pushes slowly into ANNE, kisses her – but hardly moves, teasing gently.)

JAKE (shifting her lips to HAMILTON’s neck, but, like MARK, hardly moving her hips): Hammy, you think maybe my twin brother should come here?

HAMILTON: Mmmm ... you don’t have a twin brother ... do you?

JAKE: I almost did. His name was Jake. Always wore too many clothes. Must have felt cold all the time. Probably hoping to find someone to keep him warm.

HAMILTON: He seemed pretty warm to me.

JAKE: Mmmm ... He could have gotten really sick last August and been unable to come back to Rawley this fall. While I, having heard from him how great Rawley is, could have started at Rawley Girls’ in September. With a hair weave. And maybe glasses, eyebrow threading, mascara …

HAMILTON (suddenly alert, holding JAKE’s head to look into her eyes): You didn’t really consider that last summer, did you?

JAKE: Well …

HAMILTON: That’s totally harebrained. It was way too late to apply. Rawley’s not Grottlesex, no rolling admissions. And fall term, unlike summer, isn’t undersubscribed.

JAKE: I might have done my first term as a non-diploma student. Taking some undersubscribed courses, maybe living off-campus. It’s been done before. You can enroll any time before classes start.

HAMILTON (trying to think): Uh ... yeh. But what middle school records would you have applied with? Same ones your “twin brother” used, just a different first name at the top?

JAKE: He’s not very imaginative, is he, Mark?

MARK (nuzzling ANNE’s neck): Mmmm ... still fails to appreciate your talents. It’s sad.

JAKE: Any records I wanted from any school whose database I could hack into, Hammy.

HAMILTON: But that’s lying. Not about your gender, but about everything else.

JAKE: No. I’d have used my real courses and grades. But my twin brother’s would have changed slightly in both the Rawley database and the source databases. They’d be from the same schools, but all the schools I attended before Rawley were co-ed, and twins often attend the same school. Think anybody’d have noticed?

HAMILTON: Uh ... probably not. But you’d have needed to bring your mom into that – before someone from this school asked her about her seriously ill son.

JAKE: So I’d have used the one thing she really relates to – sex. A graphic account of why I’m addicted to your body would have persuaded her to help me. And she wouldn’t have had to lie outright – just break into actress tears whenever poor sick Jake was mentioned. I’d have done that, too, of course. And soon, people would have stopped mentioning him.

HAMILTON: And you’d have stooped to stealing your twin brother’s gay boyfriend?

JAKE (softly, moving her hips a bit, resuming her attentions to HAMILTON’s chest and neck): I’d have saved the poor boy. Rescued him from a life of depravity. Think how grateful his parents would have been.

HAMILTON (trying to focus): That would have drawn attention.

JAKE: We could have been started out discreet. Used the town, like Mark does. And while I was screwing my twin brother’s bashful gay boyfriend’s brains out off-campus, he could gradually have worked up the nerve to talk to me at school. By now we might even be holding hands in public. It would have been so romantic!

HAMILTON (grinning, holding JAKE to slow her): It would. But you’d always have been at risk for having lied. When did you come up with this? And how? Reading  _Twelfth Night_  while stoned?

JAKE: Close. But I didn’t come up with it. A friend with a twin sister came up with it.

HAMILTON: Mark?

MARK: Yeh. When Jacqueline told me how she’d cried her way through Viola’s soliloquy after you barged into her room, all bothered about being gay, and told her, “You’re the man,” you dork.

(HAMILTON winces.)

JAKE (softly): Mark and I didn’t know there was a better way. A way to bring me back as a girl without lying about anything. Mark just knew I needed to be here. As a girl. With you.

(ANNE, now fully focused on the conversation, kisses MARK intensely.)

HAMILTON: And you were gonna run with this ... if I hadn’t come up with something better ... and if Finn hadn’t caught us?

JAKE: Yeh ... and maybe even after he caught us. Finn is sort of a softy, Hamilton, and we’d have solved the problem ... and he’d have had an excuse to pretend not to know.

ANNE (breaking off, awed): And you two didn’t tell Hamilton or me about this, until now – until you were sure Ham’s plan would work – so that if it hadn’t worked, he’d never have known that he’d made you not run with another plan that might have worked better.

(JAKE nods. HAMILTON leans up to MARK, kisses him – lips-only, but erotic as well as affectionate. JAKE starts to get off HAMILTON. HAMILTON stops her, holds her to him, shakes his head, caresses hers.)

ANNE (softly): Are you sure, Ham?

HAMILTON: Just love him for all of us, Anne.

(ANNE kisses MARK, HAMILTON nuzzling her neck as he and and MARK pull all four of them as close together as they can. When ANNE and MARK break off, MARK and JAKE rest their heads on ANNE and HAMILTON.)

MARK (gently): Ham, our  _Twelfth Night_  solution was always Jacqueline’s “Plan B.” Her “Plan A” was always just to trust you. Last summer, after you finally went for her, she and I didn’t talk about you much. But there was one thing I had to keep asking, because it was so important.

HAMILTON: Why she was allowing her lust to ruin my reputation as a stud?

MARK: No, clown. Whether you’d talked with her about fall term. Her charade had to end, and if she didn’t take control of how it ended, it might end really badly. I knew that, she knew that, and I was pretty sure you knew that, but I didn’t know what you intended to do about it.

HAMILTON: Neither did she.

MARK: I know, that was the problem. 

JAKE: Of course, I agreed with Mark that how to let me be a girl again and still stay with you was the biggest problem you and I faced, Hamilton - 'cause I really needed to do both. 

MARK: But Jackie kept saying that she trusted you, even though you never talked about it with her – because you never talked about anything important last summer.

ANNE (to JAKE): Right. Except once, on your restaurant date, Ham never talked about your emotional problems, or what they were doing to you. He just solved them. He loved you.

MARK: But this problem wasn't emotional, just loving Jackie wasn't going to solve it, and it was increasingly urgent. Ham, your never talking about it with her worried me more and more, until, with the end of summer session only a week off, you told everyone you were moving in with Jake. Then I blew up and demanded to know how she could still trust you.

HAMILTON: Man, you should have just come to me and told me.

MARK: No, I shouldn’t. It wouldn’t have gone well. I was starting to think maybe you were either a fool or a bastard. And you were juggling an impossibly complex situation. I would have been another complication, a threat. Jacqueline knew that. And the last thing she needed was for you and me to fight.

JAKE: But to talk to you is exactly what Mark threatened to do. He was going to warn you that he wouldn't let me stay at Rawley as a boy fall term, and offer you his  _Twelfth Night_  solution to our problem.

MARK: Fortunately, Jackie got me to back off.

ANNE: Without knowing what Ham's plan was, or even whether he had one?

(MARK nods.)

ANNE: How?

MARK: First, Jackie pointed out that Ham hadn't said how long he'd planned to room with her, that he'd still said nothing about fall term. ... (To HAMILTON:) Then she thanked me for telling her that you'd told everyone you were moving into her room even before you'd asked her. Because that, she said, made it all make sense.

ANNE (to JAKE): You saw through Ham's act?

MARK: Totally. But she made me think it through for myself. … (To HAMILTON:) Told me how ineptly you'd asked to move in with her. Asked me whether either that, or your telling everyone you were moving in with her before you'd even asked her, seemed in character for you. Told me Ryder'd caught you two snogging in the library and had started to out you earlier the same day. Then asked, "So maybe it's not what it looks like?"

JAKE (to HAMILTON): And Mark, not being brainless, suggested that maybe you'd never really intended to move in with me - that maybe you were staging a public break-up with me to preempt Ryder's outing us during the last few days of summer session - or at least to keep anyone from being interested if he kept at it.

HAMILTON (to JAKE): You never told me you'd seen through it.

JAKE: Protecting my information source. And helping you feel manly.

HAMILTON: Foxy.

JAKE: It's a game two can play, schemer. But your telling me I wasn't worth it the next day really upped the ante. That exceeded expectations.

HAMILTON: Jake ...

JAKE: Shhh ... It hurt, but it was brilliant. No girl has ever been loved better ... (Smiling at MARK:) Even if you did have a little help.

ANNE (to MARK): So figuring out that Ham didn't really plan to move in with Jackie was enough to make you trust him to deal with the fall term problem?

MARK: No, but It calmed me down enough to listen to what Jackie had to say.

ANNE: Which was what? 

MARK: That the longer Ham didn’t talk about fall term, the surer she was that he already had a plan for dealing with it. Otherwise he'd have been talking with her to try to make one.

JAKE: Anne, if I’d been wrong about that ... I’d have been wrong about everything, about Hamilton. It would have meant that he was a total jerk, either a fool or a bastard, just like Mark was starting to suspect he might be. And I knew he wasn't.

MARK: That was, like total, blind trust - perfect faith. ... (To JAKE:) I hoped it would prove well-founded. And not just for your sake. I knew that if Ham was what we hoped he was ... then I was close to a miracle that would change everyone it touched.  

JAKE: Mark, I’d already been given two miracles the night of the cotillion – three, counting yours, the one I never knew about till this term. To have a little faith after that isn’t much to brag about. And my faith wasn’t perfect. I trusted Hamilton to have a plan, but I didn’t know what it was. So I was glad your twin-brother solution was there.

ANNE: You thought Ham’s solution might suck.

JAKE: Yeh, and it hasn’t been easy. You know that better than anyone, Anne. I couldn’t have gotten through it without you. I was hoping Ham’s solution would be easier than Mark’s, not harder - that he’d found some way for me just to transfer to the girl’s school. Even after Finn caught us, I was still hoping I might stay at Rawley this fall.

HAMILTON (caressing JAKE’s head): Yeh. ... That was the last thing you said before you left Rawley - the closest you ever came to asking for help with words. But Rawley wasn’t the place to tell you that you couldn’t come back to it for a year. At least I’d gotten you to tell me it didn’t have to be over even if you couldn’t come back, and to invite me to New York.

JAKE: And when you told me, in Manhattan, not just that you’d stay with me, even though we’d have to be apart most of the time for a year, but that you’d come to me after the cotillion knowing that we’d have to do that … (She kisses HAMILTON intensely, starts gently to ride him again.)

ANNE (to MARK): So you bought into Jackie’s total faith in Hamilton?

MARK: No, I didn’t really trust Ham to take care of her till she told me she’d be going to Grottlesex as a girl. But I bought her argument that I didn’t need to go talk to him.

HAMILTON (breaking off, holding JAKE still): Why?

MARK: Partly because if it turned out you had a plan to let Jackie be a girl again this fall, but it wasn’t as good as the twin-brother solution, then she could suggest that solution without my help, and without telling you it came from me.

JAKE: Mark made me promise to do that, in return for his not talking to you.

HAMILTON: And partly ...?

MARK: Because of what Jackie said then, and said again just now – if you didn’t have any plan to let her be a girl this term, then she’d been totally wrong about you, and you were a jerk. I really, really liked Jacqueline. I’d have followed her to hell to be with her. And no jerk would have stopped me.

(HAMILTON grabs MARK’s head, pulls it down and leans up to kiss him. MARK gently but firmly pushes HAMILTON back down, turns HAMILTON’s head to face JAKE.)

MARK (to HAMILTON): She’s yours, guy. ... (Turning to ANNE, caressing her face:) And even though I knew I'd win by losing, I never dreamed how beautiful it would be.

(MARK kisses ANNE, and they begin to make love. JAKE and HAMILTON watch for a moment, look into each other’s eyes, then start to make love with surprising violence, reversing positions as they do.

As MARK extends a hand to caress HAMILTON's back, the camera turns away from the bed toward the window overlooking the town common, panning in through it onto SEAN and LIZ, seated on a bench near the bandstand, feeding peanuts to the squirrels.)

  
*       *       * 

 


	12. Scene 8 - Pot of gold

INT – FRIENDLY’S DINER. DAY 5, SATURDAY (DAY - MORNING).

(High snowbanks line the street outside the diner. Across the street, GRACE services a car filling up at CHARLIE’s gas station. SCOUT sits at the counter, facing the window, talking and drinking coffee with CHARLIE, the only customer. SCOUT wears corduroy slacks and a dark blue Friendly’s uniform polo shirt with the chain’s name embroidered in small red cursive letters on the front. CHARLIE’s in overalls, plaid flannel shirt, and open parka.)

CHARLIE: Between that and what Donna’s dad gave me before he died, it was a lot of money. More than enough to put two girls through college anywhere. And that’s what I’ve saved most of it for.

SCOUT (dazed): So it is true.

CHARLIE: I increasingly doubt it. But I want you to know why I thought it was.

SCOUT: How can it not be true? If Bella’s dad never had that kind of money, it had to come from my dad.

CHARLIE: From your family. Not necessarily from your dad. Did your dad have that kind of money seventeen years ago?

SCOUT: Probably not. But he could have asked my grand-dad for it.

CHARLIE: More likely Donna’s dad went straight to your dad’s dad. A parent who wants a practical solution bypasses the emotionally involved kids.

SCOUT: You think my grand-dad would have paid without proof?

CHARLIE: Donna wanted that baby. If nobody had married her, and she said nothing, everybody would have assumed that she was protecting your dad and raising his kid. And when he ran for office …

SCOUT: That would have come out. But my dad must have known. My grand-dad would have talked to him.

CHARLIE: Would he? No matter what your dad said, that conversation wouldn’t have changed what your grand-dad needed to do in order to make the problem go away. Why burden his son with it?

SCOUT: That’s cynical.

CHARLIE: That’s parental, Scout.

SCOUT (after a pause): OK. So my grand-dad might have paid to find Donna a husband without proof that my dad had fathered her baby. Maybe even without asking my dad whether he was the father. But why do you now seem to think it’s more likely that Donna lied to her dad, or that her dad lied to my grand-dad, than that my dad’s lying to me?

CHARLIE: Scout, maybe nobody lied. Donna never told me who the father was. Maybe she never told her dad, either. Maybe she was protecting another guy, like Grace suggested. Maybe her dad assumed that your dad was the guy Donna was protecting - like everyone would have if nobody'd married her. And maybe your dad has always assumed Bella was mine – just like everybody else has. Like we wanted them to.

SCOUT: But if Donna hadn’t had sex with my dad for years, then she pretty much lied by letting her dad take the money.

CHARLIE: Scout, Donna never knew about the money. You think her dad and I told her that he paid me to marry her? Not that I didn’t like her – I did. And I felt sorry for her. But ... I’d been waiting for another girl I liked more.

SCOUT: Oh ... sorry. That ...

CHARLIE: My choice, Scout. ... Look, for ten years, I haven't wanted to know about Donna's personal life. And except for one phone call from her, in August, about the gas station and Bella's showing up in Carson, she and I haven't spoken.

SCOUT: That's why you didn't know she still owned the gas station until she put it up for auction last August?

CHARLIE: When she filed for a divorce, right after leaving, Donna didn't ask for anything, so there was no property list in the divorce papers. 

SCOUT: Mistake?

CHARLIE: Big one. I thought her dad had given her the station when he bought it, a year before she left, so that we could stop paying rent on it. So I assumed it was part of the "everything" I'd gotten when the divorce was finalized. But in fact, he only left it to her when he died, a year after the divorce. And real estate titles are kept at the town hall, and Donna never asked for rent, so ...

SCOUT: You never knew. 

CHARLIE: Yeh. ... But yesterday I made some phone calls to people who are still in touch with Donna. They told me she’s living, over in Carson, with a guy she'd dated in high school here. He got another girl pregnant and had to marry her. But apparently they got divorced about the time Donna left me. Maybe Donna was protecting him.

SCOUT: So it looks like Grace was right?

CHARLIE: That’s my best guess. ... Bella says you and she plan to get a DNA test.

SCOUT: I offered her one, and she accepted.

CHARLIE: Then get it. If it’s negative, we’ll talk about how to give the money back to your grandfather. I’ve used some of the interest to keep my little gas station history museum running, but the principal’s still there, and more.

SCOUT: No, we will not talk about that. My dad obviously cared for Donna. And I care for Bella and Grace. I won’t help you give it back.

CHARLIE: Scout, it’s not your money. It’s probably your grandfather’s.

SCOUT: And he spent it, and he got what he paid for. My dad made a mistake, going to Rawley functions with Donna after he was married. My grand-dad paid to cover that mistake, and it’s been covered. Well covered, until I showed up.

CHARLIE: That’s for your grandfather to decide. And he should know that the son he raised didn’t cheat on his wife.

SCOUT (after a pause): Yeh, he should. ... Oh my god, that’s what happened to him.

CHARLIE: What?

SCOUT: That’s why Rawley’s still not co-ed. When my grand-dad was young, he was totally progressive. He took the lead in setting up Rawley Girls’, hoping eventually to merge it with the boys’ school. But that never happened, because he turned into a sexual reactionary about the time I was born ... and no one has ever understood why. It mystifies my dad.

CHARLIE: Then we can be sure that Donna’s dad went directly to your grandfather, and that your father was kept in the dark. And Scout, we have to tell your grand-dad. He’s been scarred by something that never happened, and a lot of kids are paying for it.

SCOUT: No question. When the DNA test result comes in, I’ll take it to him. But I’ll do it alone. Don’t worry about the money. He wouldn’t take it anyhow - he wouldn’t mess me up by making my falling for Bella cost her and Grace their school funds. And he's going to be really happy.

CHARLIE: Thanks, Scout.

SCOUT: You know, Grace was right about something else, too.

CHARLIE: What?

SCOUT: This is like something out of a Dickens novel ... in so many ways.

CHARLIE: Some. ... Grace and Bella don’t know, of course, about the money.

SCOUT: Obviously. Will told me you sounded really upset when you learned that the gas station was going to be auctioned off. You could buy it, but you don’t want to show your hand?

CHARLIE: I was just shocked - I could have taken out a mortgage. But I wouldn't have paid cash. Bella and Grace have abandonment issues - you’ve seen that. If they know there’s more to cling to, they’ll cling even more.

SCOUT: But you’ll have to tell Bella and Grace if they use it for college.

CHARLIE: I might. But Finn’s told me we could funnel the money through scholarship funds.

SCOUT: He knows?

CHARLIE: He knows Donna’s dad gave me a lot of money. And although he’s discreet, he’s not stupid.

SCOUT: No, he’s not. And I trust him.

CHARLIE: You should. Apart from liking you, he wants nothing but good for your family. Most people in this town do, Scout. We’re grateful for what you’re all trying to do.

SCOUT: I’ve felt that. So, I’m sure, did my dad. Maybe that’s part of why he made a mistake, asking an old girlfriend from this town to stand in for his wife at Rawley functions. Maybe he just felt at home here. ... It’s really easy to feel at home here, Mr. Banks.

CHARLIE: I’m glad. ... (After draining his coffee:) I think I’ll go polish my new pump globes. Like them?

SCOUT (shrugging): Yeh. They’re pretty.

CHARLIE (standing): So do I. And they’re good for business.

SCOUT (also standing): Gee, that’s great.

CHARLIE: Yep, whoever gave me those is really smart. Has a sense of aesthetics, of business, of history. The good sense to ask why pump globes vanished, the research skill to find out why, and the creativity to figure out a solution to the problem. You know why they disappeared, Scout?

SCOUT (moving behind the counter): Um, why?

CHARLIE: They were a fire hazard with electric lights inside. The insurance got too costly. So whoever put mine on Halloween night painted them on the inside with phosphorescent paint. No fire hazard, no insurance problem. That’s smart. And it’s love. I didn’t know I had any female admirers that clever.

SCOUT (washing CHARLIE’s cup): There’s a lot of smart ladies in this town, Charlie.

CHARLIE: There are. But gas pump globes are more a guy thing, aren’t they? And so are Halloween pranks. But I have so few brilliant, artistic single male friends. You think maybe Finn likes me?

SCOUT (choking): Uh ... anything’s possible. But I kinda think he likes women more.

CHARLIE (sighing): Seems likely. I’ll try not to get my hopes up.

SCOUT (laughing): Alright, enough.

CHARLIE (grinning): Bella got it right away, of course. She’s not sure which of you Rawley clowns it was, but she knows it wasn’t Will. He was at the McGrails’ all night.

SCOUT: Let her wonder - it was more than one of us. ... But Mr. Banks, why all the antiques? They can’t all be good for business.

CHARLIE (looking at the gas station): They make me feel young again. Like it’s not too late to start over. Not too late for a second chance, maybe.

SCOUT: I hope you get one, Mr. Banks.

CHARLIE: You too, Scout. (He leaves.)

*       *       *


	13. Scene 9 - There’s no success like failure

INT - RAWLEY BOYS’, FINN’S SUITE. DAY 6 - SATURDAY (DAY - LATE MORNING).

 

(For a description, see the section titled, "[Setting:  Finn's Suite](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1437208/chapters/3023563)" of the [Notes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1437208) to [_Lest faith turn to despair_](http://archiveofourown.org/series/89848).

A low fire burns in the living room hearth. From a CD player, Dylan’s “[Like a Rolling Stone](https://vimeo.com/108097380)“ plays softly. The door to the long narrow adjoining room is open. Through that doorway, several moving boxes are seen on the bed.

FINN, WILL, and LENA sit at the dining table. FINN sits at the end of the table, facing the window, Will around the table-corner from him, facing toward the kitchen, and LENA at the other side of the table with her back to the kitchen. Three coffee mugs sit on the table, one near each. FINN and WILL are playing chess, in middle game, FINN ahead by two pawns. LENA is knitting, a knitting basket and purse on the vacant chair next to her. FINN wears a dress shirt, sweater-vest, and wool slacks, LENA a dark blue sweater and plaid wool skirt, WILL a flannel shirt and corduroy slacks.

FINN moves his hand almost to touch a piece, then away from it. He then picks up his coffee mug, glancing furtively at LENA, who almost imperceptibly shakes her head in disapproval. FINN takes a sip of coffee, sets down his mug, ponders the situation for a moment, then moves a different piece, stands, and again looks briefly at LENA, who smiles. FINN goes into the kitchen where, still visible through the pass-through, he starts to wash a few plates and glasses and a frying pan.

WILL shoots LENA a reproachful glare. LENA smiles sweetly, sets down her knitting, stands, picks up WILL’s mug, takes it into the kitchen, refills it from a coffee pot there, and brings it back to WILL, who unhappily ponders his predicament on the board. LENA sets WILL’s mug down next to him, kisses him on the cheek, returns to her knitting.

RYDER, in jeans, barefoot, shirtless and sweating, enters the adjoining room from the corridor, carrying a moving box, sets it down on the floor next to the bed. LENA’s eyes wander from her knitting as RYDER sets about unloading books from the box onto a bookshelf inlaid in the wall above the bed. WILL shoots her another, far sterner, reproving look. She smiles faintly and resumes knitting.)

FINN (putting the last of the dishes in a drying rack, leaving the frying pan to soak in the sink): Moved yet, Will?

WILL: No, sorry.

FINN: Take your time. ... Ryder, would you like some water?

RYDER (straining to lift the last of the books): If lager’s not on offer.

FINN: It’s not.

(FINN draws a large glass of water, returns with it. RYDER, having emptied the box, meets FINN near the table, takes the glass.)

RYDER: Thanks. (He begins to gulp the water.)

WILL (finally moving a piece): So what happened to all the stuff that was stored in Ryder’s new room?

FINN (sitting down to consider his next move): Ryder carried it down to the storeroom.

WILL: Not much free space down there.

FINN: Ryder freed some up. Carted the crates of paperweights out. Some are up for grabs, if you’d like one.

WILL: No thanks. Hamilton’s showed me those.

FINN: As you please. ... (Taking one of WILL’s knights with his queen:) Check!

WILL (dismayed, pushing back from the table): Is that the last of your stuff, Ryder?

RYDER: No such luck, William.

WILL: Want some help?

RYDER: You’re losing, I see.

WILL (glumly): Yes.

RYDER: Then I’ll manage, thanks. (He finishes his water and sets the glass down on the table.)

(RYDER goes back into the adjoining room, picks up the empty moving box, exits to the corridor. LENA’s eyes follow him. WILL again looks at her sternly. Her eyes plead back at him. WILL sighs, looks questioningly at FINN.)

FINN (smiling, to WILL): Go.

(WILL stands, holds his chair for LENA, inviting her with a hand gesture to sit in it. LENA sets aside her knitting, rises, kisses WILL lightly, seats herself in his seat across the chessboard from FINN. WILL walks to the adjoining room, picks up an empty moving box, and carries it out into the corridor. LENA blocks FINN’s check with a bishop, creating a revealed check by one of her rooks.)

LENA: Back at ya.

(FINN glowers at LENA over the rim of his glasses. She smiles.)

 

*       *       * 


	14. Scene 10 - Feeding the masses

INT – FRIENDLY’S DINER. DAY 5, SATURDAY (DAY – EARLY AFTERNOON).

(The diner is deserted, save for SCOUT, reading _Little Women_ concealed inside a geometry textbook behind the counter. WILL, HAMILTON, FINN, JAKE and LENA enter, wiping their boots. FINN wears a trenchcoat, JAKE her white parka, unfastened, HAMILTON a blue denim jacket, LENA a windbreaker, WILL a down vest; no scarves, the weather’s warmed. JAKE and LENA wear backpacks and high leather boots, JAKE's partly concealed by loose-fitting blue jeans. HAMILTON totes a shopping bag.)

SCOUT (looking up, sliding _Little Women_ down behind the counter): Hi guys. Thanks for rescuing me from geometry.

WILL: Slow day, huh?

JAKE: National cold turkey leftovers weekend.

(While FINN removes his coat and hangs it on a peg-rack by the door, HAMILTON and WILL take JAKE’s and LENA’s outerwear, then hang them, with their own, next to FINN’s. FINN still wears a dress shirt, sweater-vest, and wool slacks, JAKE her new white blouse and open black cardigan sweater, LENA a pink sweater and plaid wool skirt, WILL a flannel shirt and corduroy slacks, HAMILTON in the same dress shirt but with a sweater and brushed denim jeans. They sit down at the window-seat table, filling the window-seat, clockwise WILL, FINN, HAMILTON, JAKE and LENA. Hamilton sets the shopping back nest to him. the chair facing toward the window is left vacant.)

SCOUT: Would you like some menus?

JAKE: No thanks, Calhoun. We’re just here to brighten your day.

SCOUT: Lucky me! Might you also like something to eat?

HAMILTON: Yes, please. Five burgers with fries and five cokes, as appetizers.

JAKE: And for the main course, five three-scoop sundaes with double toppings, no two flavors alike, no two toppings alike. Your tip will reflect your culinary creativity in their concoction, working boy.

SCOUT: I’m sorry, we’re out of burgers today. Unseasonable weather, delivery problems, power outages at warehouses ...

HAMILTON: How about clamboats?

SCOUT: Plumb out of those, too, I’m afraid.

LENA: OK, what do you have?

SCOUT: Turkey melts, turkey wraps, turkey salad, turkey quesadillas. And our remaining flavors of ice cream are cranberry and pumpkin.

JAKE: Enough, Calhoun. Cut the crap. Yesterday I fought my way through every hussy in South Boston to snatch from Filene’s these rags on which your love-starved eyes now feast. You do not want to mess with me when I’m hungry.

HAMILTON: Truly. She trampled gristle giants underfoot like overripe tomatoes and never once broke stride.

SCOUT: I shall make inquiries with our _chef de cuisine_. Perhaps in his private reserve some delicacies may yet be found. Should I succeed, I shall expect an ode in my honor.

(SCOUT disappears into the kitchen.)

WILL (to JAKE): So, Black Friday at Filene’s. Apart from that, Ms. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

JAKE: Oh, we finished clothes shopping by mid-morning. Bought some bread and peanuts, trudged down to the Public Garden, gorged some squirrels and pigeons.

(SCOUT re-emerges from the kitchen.)

HAMILTON: Then skated on the Frog Pond. Well, I skated. Jake danced. I ... I ...

FINN: “Then felt you like some watcher of the skies  
           When a new planet swims into his ken ...  
           Silent, upon a peak in Darien”?

HAMILTON: Yeh. ... (Drowning in JAKE’s eyes): “Like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new.”

JAKE (breaking eye contact, taking HAMILTON’s hand): Hammy had a few surprises for me, too. Like the place on Beacon Hill where we warmed up after skating.

SCOUT (grinning, starting to draw five Cokes): He took you to his dad’s house on Pinckney Street?

JAKE: We delivered cold turkey to his dad’s mom.

HAMILTON: She likes you.

JAKE: I have a womb, and you’re her only grandson. And your pulling your gay act with Mark on her the night before the Head of the Charles was so low ...

WILL: Wait a minute ... Pinckney Street? Like Hawthorne’s and Thoreau’s Pinckney Street?

HAMILTON (shrugging): They lived there because it’s affordable. The real money’s on the South Slope.

WILL (rolling his eyes): Right.

JAKE (to WILL): Yeh. ... And the private middle school Hamilton went to, the one he never talks about, and that I’d assumed was local and obscure? It’s Boston Latin.

WILL: No way. ... (To JAKE:) It’s public, not private. ... (To HAMILTON:) And you don’t live in Boston.

FINN: Legally, he does. His dad’s never cut his ties to Boston. Still pays taxes there, votes there.

WILL: But spring semester at public schools didn’t end till the second week of summer session – like, just before Lena showed up – and you were here the first day.

HAMILTON: So were you.

WILL: Yeh, but I took my exams early, then used my allowed absences.

HAMILTON: So did I.

WILL (wincing): Sorry. You’ve played dumb so much of the time for so long ...

HAMILTON (shrugging): Love dulls the wits.

WILL: Droll.

LENA: So in middle school you lived with your grandmother?

HAMILTON: Only on weekdays. Weekends, I came back here. This is my home.

(SCOUT brings their cokes, starts to serve them.)

JAKE: You love Boston, too.

HAMILTON: Never so much as yesterday. And I could only share it with you for the first time once. Just like I could only watch you skate for the first time once.

WILL: Ham ... You can know a girl all your life ... and every day, she can still amaze you. I’m pretty sure that never has to stop.

LENA: It doesn’t have to. You and Jacqueline can keep growing, Hamilton – with a little help from each other.

JAKE: And from our friends. ... Scout, stick around if you’re not too busy. Before Hamilton and I came back here, we walked over to Cambridge. And we brought back a few things.

(SCOUT lingers.)

HAMILTON (taking a gift bag out of his shopping bad, reading the tag): “To Lena. For knowing before we did. May you never lose the gift.” (He passes it to LENA.)

LENA: Thornton Wilder’s _Matchmaker_. A first edition. ... Thanks, I only know the musical: “Mother Nature always needs a little push.” ... (To JAKE:) I suspect she needs less of one when nobody’s cross-dressing.

JAKE: Lena, I’m so sorry ...

LENA (holding JAKE’s hand): Jacqueline, no more apologies. One was beautiful, and enough. But get used to being teased about it, and not just by me.

JAKE: I know.

LENA: I brought something for you, too – for Grottlesex.

(LENA digs into her purse, pulls out a snow-dome paperweight with a miniature of the main building of Rawley Boys’ inside it. JAKE looks at it, then hugs LENA fiercely, eventually settling into holding LENA, her head on LENA’s shoulder, and looking at Hamilton. SCOUT and WILL exchange smiles.)

HAMILTON: Where’d you get his, Lena? I’ve only seen one like it before – in Scout’s dad’s study.

LENA: There was a crate of them underneath the newer, crappy ones in the storeroom. Ryder dug it out this morning, when Finn had him clean out the storeroom.

HAMILTON: So my dad was right. These would have made great gifts for town families.

FINN: No, there weren’t nearly enough of them. And your calendars are a hit.

WILL: Storerooms are like poetry, Ham. You can’t just see what’s on the surface. You’ve got to dig deeper to find the good stuff. And if you can’t find it, you dig even deeper. ... Or you ask Ryder for help.

HAMILTON (rolling his eyes at WILL): I’ll pass. ... (Digging out another gift bag:) Will, this is for you.

WILL (elated): Oh my god. The Beatles’ “White Album” – in vinyl?

HAMILTON: We thought of getting it on CD, but somehow, that just didn’t seem right.

WILL: It’s for gems like this that I still ... my mom still has a vinyl player. ... (He reads:) “To our seven, from his cox and stroke: broken wings can learn to fly.” ... (He smiles. To JAKE:) Spoken like silence, Raven. Thanks. ... But when?

JAKE: Soon, Blackbird.

HAMILTON: Very soon. ... (Taking out another gift bag:) And this for our lake-loving rowing coach and lit teacher: “‘A time to be silent, and a time to speak.’ To Finn, for knowing both.”

FINN: _The Compleat Angler_. Lang’s 1896 edition.

JAKE: A reprint.

FINN: I should hope so. ... I haven’t held a copy of Walton since I was at Harvard. This will be a treat.

HAMILTON: It includes an epigram by Martial, _Ad Piscatorem_ , that made us think of you. How does that go, Jacqueline?

JAKE: "Angler! Would’st thou be guiltless? Then forbear;  
          For these are sacred fishes that swim here."

HAMILTON: Finn – Jacqueline and I can’t thank you and Will enough. I never dreamed that my dad would invite Jacqueline back to Rawley. That means more to us than we can say.

FINN: Hamilton, it was what you did that led your parents to do that. All I did was to get Will to tell them about it. And it’s not just you that your dad’s treating that way. It’s everybody – even Ryder. By the way, Lena, when is Ryder supposed to meet you here?

LENA: In about half an hour.

(Groans from SCOUT, WILL and HAMILTON.)

HAMILTON: Ryder? Lena, why did you ask him to come?

FINN: I asked him, Hamilton. I’ll tell you why over lunch. I see you have more gifts in your bag.

JAKE: One’s for you, Calhoun. Or it was, before you tried to feed us turkey again.

HAMILTON (pulling another gift bag out of the shopping bag): Oh, it still is. ... (Reading the card on it:) “To Scout, from Thanksgiving Present - for you, the door is always open.”

SCOUT (taking the gift bag from Hamilton): _The Annotated 'Christmas Carol'_. My favorite Dickens story, all grown up into a big fat book. Thanks.

LENA: Scout, it’s everybody’s favorite Dickens story.

HAMILTON: You know, Scout, part of what makes this story Dickens’ best is that the extended-family miracle that resolves the plot isn’t limited by biology. Scrooge makes the Cratchits his family.

JAKE (disengaging from LENA, snuggling back into HAMILTON): Yeh, but Scrooge’s options were kinda limited. There are even better ways of making people family. (She looks SCOUT up and down.)

(HAMILTON smiles at SCOUT.)

FINN (clearing his throat): One more gift, I see.

HAMILTON: For Bella.

SCOUT: So where is she?

JAKE: Couldn’t come. Some school thing. We’ll find her later.

SCOUT: Do. ... (Looking toward the kitchen, seeing plates on the pass-through:) I think your lunch may be ready for you. Are you ready for it?

(Diverse claims of starvation. SCOUT retreats behind the counter.)

LENA (to HAMILTON): Bella? The girl you told me about Thanksgiving night? The one whose dad runs the gas station across the street?

HAMILTON: The same.

JAKE: Hamilton and I want you and her to meet. Soon. (She looks at WILL.)

WILL (to JAKE): Alright. ... (To LENA:) Bella’s the girl I’m waiting for.

LENA (taking WILL’s hand): Then I definitely want to meet her.

(SCOUT returns with a tray full of burgers and fries.)

FINN: Why, it’s a miracle!

SCOUT: It is indeed!

(He sets down the tray, serves the food with one hand while gesticulating with the other.)

             From pantries trembling at the name of Pratt  
             plump paddies gamboled to the greasy grate.  
             French fries flew forth into the fiery fat.  
             They cooked themselves, then clambered on the plate.

JAKE (quiet for a moment, then slowly rising to the challenge, as Scout serves the food):

            If fries and burgers loaves and fishes pass  
            in wonder, pilgrim, not from fear of me,  
            but ‘twas for you, to save your sorry ass  
            from pounding, that they died – of sympathy.

LENA: The why’s the wonder, that for your light lie  
           of storm-spared turkey wraps and pumpkin ice  
           so fair a food-stock should so freely die,  
           a loving larder of self-sacrifice.

WILL (looking at HAMILTON): Yet for all wonders gratitude is meet ...

HAMILTON: So thanks. Please pass the ketchup. Now, let’s eat!

FINN (passing a plastic ketchup dispenser to HAMILTON): The Bard cringes in his grave.

WILL: Perhaps we’ve listened to the lake a bit too long.

JAKE: Hey, someone’s gotta feed the masses.

FINN: But that definitely exceeds expectations. Perhaps I should set new ones. Like class discussions in rhymed iambic pentameter?

SCOUT: Only if you feed us, Finn.

FINN: Man does not live by bread alone, Mr. Calhoun.

JAKE: Yeh, ice cream’s a lot more inspiring. Speaking of which, isn’t there some work you should be doing, Scout?

SCOUT: Oops ... I’ll get right on that. (He vanishes into the kitchen.)

HAMILTON: So, Finn, to what do we owe the dubious pleasure of Ryder’s company?

FINN: Part of his punishment.

HAMILTON (picking up his burger): Sounds better already. For what?

 

*       *       *


	15. Scene 11 – Eliminating the impossible

EXT - RAWLEY BOYS’ BOATHOUSE. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAY – EARLY AFTERNOON).

 

(In the shoveled but otherwise deserted parking lot behind the boathouse, MARK Johnson and ANNE Crompton, both wearing jeans, sweaters, and parkas, open and hood down, stand next to JAKE Pratt’s snowmobile, holding hands, talking. Two helmets rest on the sled’s seats. The surface of the parking lot is wet; the bordering snowbanks glisten in the sunlight. On the far side of the boathouse, the surface of the lake is now mostly free of ice.

From the access road through the school woods behind the boathouse, MARY McGrail’s SUV pulls into the parking lot, MARY driving, LIZ Johnson seated in the front passenger’s seat, SEAN McGrail in the back seat. MARY parks the car and turns off the ignition. SEAN gets out, carrying a thermos bottle. He opens the car doors first for LIZ, then for his mother. MARY’s in her trenchcoat, her hair now well-coiffed. SEAN and LIZ both wear down parkas, open, hoods down, SEAN’s over a flannel shirt, LIZ’s over a pullover sweater. All three approach MARK and ANNE.)

LIZ (hugging MARK, smiling at ANNE, then looking back at MARK): Jerk!

MARK: There’s a reason. I’ll tell you if you don’t kill me first.

LIZ: Sean and his mom have spent the last half-hour urging me not to. ... (Disengaging from MARK:) Mrs. McGrail, Mark Johnson, my twin brother. ... Mark, Mary McGrail, Sean’s mom.

MARK: Pleased to meet you, Mrs. McGrail. Thanks for pleading my cause.

MARY (extending her hand): My pleasure, Mark.

MARK (after shaking MARY’s hand): Mrs. McGrail, Liz, Sean, this is Anne Crompton, a first-year at the Grottlesex School.

LIZ (wrapping an arm around ANNE’s waist): And your closeted girlfriend.

ANNE: Sorry, Liz. We wanted to tell you earlier. We couldn’t.

LIZ: So I’ve heard from three people now. But dirtball here has some explaining to do.

MARY: He’ll do it, if you give him a chance. ... (Again extending her hand:) Pleased to meet you, Anne.

ANNE (shaking hands): Likewise, Mrs. McGrail. Hi, Sean.

SEAN: Hi, Anne. ... (Grinning at MARK:) My mom’s fixed you some mulled cider. (He hands the thermos to MARK.)

MARK: Thanks again, Mrs. McGrail.

MARY: You’re welcome, Mark. Sean’s told me you and Liz need to talk. And that he and Anne do, too, separately. If either two of you would like a ride somewhere ...

ANNE (exchanging a smile with MARK): Thanks, Mrs. McGrail, but Mark’ll talk with Liz here. And I’ll be taking Sean out on that. (She points to the snowmobile.)

SEAN: Oh wow! Is that the one you came on?

ANNE: The same.

LIZ: You came here from Grottlesex by sled?

(ANNE nods.)

LIZ: With Jake Pratt, on Thursday?

ANNE: Yes ... but let Mark tell you, please.

MARY (to ANNE): You have a license to drive that thing?

ANNE: Don’t need a license, Mrs. McGrail. But it’s registered, and I drove it half the way from Grottlesex.

MARY: Fine, then I’ll be going. ... Anne, Mark – Sean’s father and I would like you both to join us for brunch at our house tomorrow, with Liz and Sean, if you’re free.

ANNE (after getting a nod and smile from MARK): Thank you. We’d like that.

MARY: Elevenish?

MARK: We’ll be there.

MARY: Great.

MARK (to MARY, opening the driver’s door of the SUV): Thank you. For everything, including the Thanksgiving dinners. There are a couple hundred guys who’d like to kiss you for that, but only one in position to do it. (He kisses MARY on the cheek, helps her into the car.)

MARY (blushing): Rawley guys ... you never change, do you?

MARK (closing the car door): Gotta love tradition, Mrs. McGrail.

MARY (laughing, starting the ignition, lowering the car window): See you tomorrow, Mark. ... Sean ...

SEAN: Bye, mom. Liz and I’ll phone you later.

(MARY nods. The SUV drives off.)

MARK (to SEAN): You told your parents, obviously.

SEAN (shrugging): I love them. Bella told me Jake was here, and that Ham’s parents knew, so ...

MARK: No problem. ... Sis, after you and I talk, let’s call mom and dad together, shall we?

LIZ: You’ve been hiding Anne from them, too?

(MARK nods.)

LIZ: God, Mark, why?

SEAN (to MARK, shaking his head): Man, end this – now. Liz, talk with your brother. Anne, let’s go.

ANNE (holding SEAN’s arm): Liz, excuse us please?

LIZ: Is there a fire in this theater?

ANNE: Liz – Mark needs to tell you why he’s shut you out of his life, and bring you back into it. Sean and I’d just get in the way. But we’ll come back as soon as Mark phones me.

LIZ: I understand that. But Mark, isn’t your girlfriend forgetting something?

MARK: A certain traditional parting ritual? Yes, and so is your boyfriend.

LIZ (to MARK, sighing plaintively): Maybe we’re just unlovable ... together.

ANNE (to SEAN): Demanding, manipulative twins.

SEAN (pulling LIZ to him, wrapping an arm around ANNE): Yeh, but lovable.

ANNE (embracing MARK): Even more lovable together.

(MARK kisses ANNE, and SEAN LIZ, slowly at first, but with mounting intensity, each couple briefly showing the other their passion, then wind down into affectionate nuzzling.)

ANNE (to LIZ): Better?

LIZ: Much. ... (To SEAN:) Can you handle this, boy?

SEAN: Way better than you and Mark have handled it. Right, Anne?

ANNE: For sure.

MARK: Really?

SEAN: Uh – huh. Let’s move this to the porch.

(As MARK and LIZ exchange puzzled looks, SEAN leads the group to the covered porch of the boathouse, overlooking the thawing lake. SEAN takes the thermos from MARK, sets it on a bench, gently stands MARK against the boathouse door, faces him, pulls the girls in on each side.)

SEAN (to MARK): Remember the talk you suggested Wednesday that I have with Anne? About how she and I want to handle the twin thing?

MARK (wrapping an arm around each girl): Yes.

ANNE: We’ve had it.

MARK (surprised): When?

SEAN: Thursday evening, while Liz was talking with Bella. Bella had Grace tell me you’d had to leave Anne alone for a few hours, and that she might welcome company. So I walked over to the Inn.

MARK: Thank you, guy.

SEAN: My pleasure. ... (To LIZ:) When I got to the Inn, the girl working the registration desk turned out to be Anne. The blizzard had left the Inn almost empty, so Anne covered the desk to let the innkeeper spend Thanksgiving evening with his family.

LIZ (to MARK): You chose well, twin brother.

MARK (smiling): I didn’t choose. Anne’s a gift.

SEAN: I didn’t stay long at the Inn. Anne said she was expecting company. ... (To ANNE:) Will I learn today what that was about?

MARK: Not quite yet, guy. Soon, we hope.

ANNE: But Sean and I didn’t need much time. About how to handle our twins, we found we pretty much agree.

MARK: Do tell.

SEAN: The problem seems pretty straightforward. When you and Liz were little, you shared everything, starting with the same womb. Now you don’t share the biggest thing in your lives. You’re understandably desperate to get back what you’ve lost ...

ANNE: ... to be able to share each other’s deepest feelings and best experiences, like you used to be able to do before sex opened a chasm between you. Sean and I want to be your bridge across that chasm.

SEAN: With us, you and Liz can be close safely. We won’t let it get out of hand.

ANNE: We can do a lot, emotionally, with a little, physically. Like, if you and Liz just hold each other and look into each other’s eyes – kiss if you want to – Sean and I can do the rest for you.

SEAN: As a way of feeling what your twin feels, that’s way better than making love with your twin’s lover.

MARK: That’s tempting – in every sense of that word.

ANNE: No one’s suggesting that you do that often. Sean and I just want you to know that you can. But we think the four of us could share a bed safely, whenever we like.

SEAN: Mark – Anne and I both think your getting close to Liz, with us there, won’t unleash a monster in either of you.

ANNE: We think it’ll do just the opposite, that it’ll make your relationship more relaxed, because what you want most is just to know you can be close.

SEAN: But no matter what, I won’t let you screw your sister. And I won’t leave her. If I’m wrong, I won’t leave you dealing with the monster alone. Promise.

LIZ: Sean, I’m with you and Anne on this. But it’s way too soon for promises like that.

SEAN: Not in this case, Liz. Sure, a credible commitment takes time. But what you and I are being offered isn’t just each other, it’s ... something more. Something I committed to in August, after I first heard the story you’re about to hear. That’s part of why I gave Bella up, and of why Hamilton set me up with you. Because I was already committed to that.

LIZ: To what?

SEAN: To ... the story. You’ll understand when you hear it. Anne’s told me it was the same with her and Mark. They were given each other because they were already committed to the story. So for Mark to commit to Anne, credibly, took just one night.

ANNE: True, Liz.

SEAN (to MARK): You can trust me not to run out on Liz ... on the guy who set us up ... on you and Anne ... on everything Liz and I are being offered ... and on what’s being asked of us. Where could I possibly run to find anything even half this good? Can you imagine running from this, Mark? Running out on Anne and what you and Anne are part of? (He takes his arms out from around the girls.)

MARK (softly): I’d rather die.

SEAN (gently holding MARK’s head): I’m not going to run either.

MARK: What are you doing?

SEAN (leaning in to kiss MARK): Throwing caution to the wind.

MARK (pulling back): You said you couldn’t do this ... and mean it.

SEAN (pushing his hips gently against MARK’s): I was wrong. You’re not a lot like Liz. You’re part of her.

(SEAN tries again to kiss MARK. This time, MARK lets him, reciprocating. After a moment, LIZ clears her throat, and she and ANNE nuzzle the boys apart. SEAN releases MARK'S head and wraps his arms back around the girls.)

ANNE (leaning into LIZ): I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I met Mark.

LIZ (holding ANNE’s head): I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I lost him.

(LIZ kisses ANNE tenderly, MARK and SEAN enfolding and nuzzling the girls.)

ANNE (breaking off, to SEAN): So are you and I only kissing twins today, boy?

SEAN (laughing): Definitely not. (He kisses ANNE, who responds enthusiastically.)

ANNE (breaking off:) Way too nice.

SEAN: Yeh ... You and I have to spend a long, chaste afternoon alone together.

LIZ: Suck it up, townie. So do Mark and I. And practice doesn’t make it any easier.

MARK (to SEAN): Quite a change, guy.

SEAN (shrugging): You seduced me Wednesday.

LIZ: Really?

SEAN: Wickedly. I’ll tell you in bed, if I can get you into one. ... Mark, there’s a wound in Liz and you that Anne and I can’t heal. But we can help you heal each other, and we want you whole. Show Liz a little affection when the four of us are together, please.

MARK: Liz and I’ll think about it.

LIZ: Mark, I don’t need to think about it.

MARK: I do.

SEAN: You’re Liz’s brother. You want to protect her. And that’s great. But give the job of protecting her from you to me, please. I can do it better.

ANNE: And Mark – Sean and I aren’t the only ones who think you and Liz need to do this.

MARK: Who else?

ANNE: Hamilton ... and Jake.

MARK: Since when?

ANNE: Since Liz was dating Scout. We all love your playfulness. But we see the hurt it masks. And Ham and Sean have seen that in Liz, too. So do I – it’s obvious.

MARK (sucking in a breath): Alright. ... (To LIZ:) You’re sure, sis?

LIZ: Yes, Mark, I’m sure.

MARK: McGrail ... you wanted a commitment, you’ve got one. And if I need decking, you deck me, understand?

SEAN: Clearly. But you won’t. Everybody else trusts you. And soon you’ll trust yourself. Relax.

ANNE: I think Sean and I are done here. ... (To SEAN:) Shall we go?

SEAN: I’d like to ask Mark a favor first.

MARK: What?

SEAN: A slight change of plans. Could you please tell Liz, alone, just the part of the story I’ve already heard? And tell the rest of it to Liz and me, with Anne ... together?

LIZ: I was about to suggest that myself. Demanding good-bye kisses has consequences, twin brother.

MARK (after getting a smile from ANNE): Sure.

SEAN: Thanks. I’ll find us a place in town.

MARK: Anne and I are fond of the General Store Café. She likes lattes.

SEAN: Then she’ll have one. Phone us when you’re done here, we’ll meet you there.

(SEAN kisses LIZ lightly. As MARK and LIZ watch, he and ANNE walk to the motorbike, zip up their parkas and put on the helmets. SEAN seats himself behind ANNE, who starts the sled and drives off, through a gap in the snowbanks, into the woods.)

LIZ: I would have sworn Sean was, like, ramrod straight.

MARK: He was, four days ago.

LIZ: But he’s gone a little gay for us. That’s so incredibly sweet.

MARK: Yeh, well ... he’s inspired.

LIZ: And Anne ... she seems familiar, somehow.

MARK: You’ve met. Kind of.

LIZ: When?

MARK: Let her tell you at the coffeehouse, with Sean.

LIZ: OK. ... Do you love her?

MARK: I hope so.

LIZ: Wimpy answer.

MARK: I know.

LIZ: How’d you meet her, and when?

MARK: Jake Pratt introduced us, last weekend in September.

LIZ: To reduce the competition for Hamilton?

MARK: Just the opposite.

LIZ: I’m really confused, Mark.

MARK: I know. You won’t be, soon.

LIZ: I’m waiting.

MARK (putting an arm around LIZ, leading her to the bench on the boathouse porch, overlooking the late): Sit with me, sis. ... (Sitting down:) Cider?

LIZ (sitting down next to him): Sure.

MARK (opening the thermos bottle): Mrs. McGrail thinks of everything, doesn’t she?

LIZ: So does her son.

MARK (pouring two thermos cups of cider): I know. So does Hamilton. We know Bella.

LIZ: She told me. ... So Sean’s right, that explains Hamilton’s introduction?

MARK (handing LIZ a cup): Only half of it.

LIZ (drinking): The other half’s that I’m your sister?

MARK (also drinking): And that you let the best catch in our class go, when you saw you weren’t what he needed. Election Night, when you were hurting, and Ham held you in his arms ...

LIZ: Oh ... I kinda felt that. ... And right then, Hamilton didn’t seem gay at all. ... I mean ...

MARK (kissing LIZ’s head): He likes you, twin sister. ... How’s it going with Sean?

LIZ (snuggling into her brother, looking out over the lake): You need to ask?

MARK: No, but I’m supposed to. ... You know, he’s a natural leader. He could be somebody someday.

LIZ: I know. And I’ll help. But let me just enjoy what he is for a little while, please?

MARK (kissing LIZ’s forehead): Take your time.

LIZ (after a pause): Mark?

MARK: What, sis?

LIZ: Wednesday morning ... Sean didn’t ask Hamilton to introduce us. Hamilton chose me for Sean. And Sean accepted Hamilton’s choice so unquestioningly that it was almost creepy. I mean, he was the only guy in a room with dozens of girls, all flirting with him, but he had eyes only for me.

MARK: That’s bad?

LIZ: No, but ... why?

MARK: He trusts Hamilton.

LIZ: That’s what I don’t get. The whole Hamilton thing. Sean trusts Hamilton to choose a girl for him. Bella says he’s the one who made her see she really loves Will. When Anne says he wants you to be more affectionate with me, you agree to do it. And all of you – Scout, Sean, Bella, Will, you – talk about him, like, with awe.

MARK (smiling): So?

LIZ: Why? Jake ran off to another school. And he’s never come back here to see Hamilton even once, till Ham’s parents asked him to. Hamilton clearly has problems keeping his own lover, despite being gorgeous, smart, and kind. So why do all of you treat him like some kind of love god?

MARK: That’s what I’m going to tell you. And sis, I know almost everybody at this school sees Ham pretty much the way you do. But in a few hours, nobody will.

LIZ: Why not?

MARK: ‘Cause everybody’ll be told, tonight, what I’m about to tell you. What Sean, Scout, Will, Bella, Anne and I already know.

LIZ: So tell me.

MARK (hugging LIZ tighter): I’ve never told this story to anyone before, Liz. I’m glad you’ll be the first.

LIZ: You sound like a virgin about to make love, twin brother.

MARK: That’s kinda how I feel, sis. I’m wondering how to do it.

LIZ: Well, I think I’ve had enough foreplay. Why don’t you just ... stick it in?

MARK: OK. ... Anne rooms with Jake Pratt at Grottlesex.

LIZ: That’s kinky, but somehow I don’t feel penetrated.

MARK: That’s because your maidenhead’s in the way, sis.

LIZ (rolling her eyes at MARK): Really?

MARK (setting his cup down on the bench): Uh-huh. Is Anne a girl?

LIZ: Definitely.

MARK (taking LIZ’s cup, setting it down next to his own): Could any prep school in this country possibly let a girl room with a guy?

LIZ: I’d have thought not, but ...

MARK: You thought right. And, to steal a phrase, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

LIZ (after a pause): Oh my god ...

MARK (pulling LIZ onto his lap): Ah, blood on the bed sheet. Relax, sis, the rest of this will feel really good.

  
*       *       * 


	16. Scene 12 - To err is human

INT - THE FLEMINGS’ HOUSE, FAMILY LIVING ROOM. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAY - EARLY AFTERNOON).

 

(The DEAN and KATE lie on the sofa facing the television, the three golden retrievers lying on the throw rug in the center of the room. On a coffee table in front of the sofa is a remote control. On the screen, a videotape is stopped at a frame showing RYDER’s face, close up, with the fireplace of the Rawley Boys’ common room in the background.

KATE sobs on her husband’s chest; the DEAN holds her. With one hand, he reaches for the remote, turns off the television, returns to comforting his wife, nuzzles her until she allows him to kiss her - passionately.

The dogs empathetically rise from the rug and nuzzle the DEAN and KATE. The DEAN, oddly appreciative, breaks off, smiles, and brings them in.)

DEAN (softly): It’s my fault, Kate. I haven’t been here.

KATE (sniffling): Because four hundred kids need you not to be. Steven, I’m so sorry …

DEAN: Shhhh ... I’m glad a great guy with more sense than I had was there for you. And I want this to bring us closer, not come between us. I told Finn that this morning.

KATE: Steven ...

DEAN: We stumbled, we get up, we keep going. The kids need us to do that. And I want to do that. Don’t you?

KATE: Of course. It’s never been this good. But ... can we?

DEAN: We can do better than that, Kate. We can bring good out of this.

KATE: How?

DEAN: At least three ways. Including two that’ll reduce my workload.

KATE (nodding): I can take on more admin work. I should have all along. I loathe it, but if it frees you up for me …

DEAN: No, I have other plans for you.

KATE: Really? ... How then?

DEAN: First, Ryder.

KATE: Expelling that wretch will save time better spent.

DEAN: We’re not going to expel him. I’ve never expelled a student when I didn’t have to. I’m not going to start now.

KATE: But the calendars ... He tried to destroy Jacqueline. And Hamilton ... twice.

DEAN: But he didn’t. We’ve been given a second chance. All of us, including him.

KATE: So you’ll just suspend him for a year.

DEAN: No, we’ll do something that’ll hurt him much more. We’ll show him he can’t hurt us. That’s why I’ve told Finn and you that I know, so that he can’t hurt us. And that’s why you and I will tell Hamilton.

KATE: Steven, no ... please.

DEAN: We won’t tell him which of us cheated, or with whom, or how the other found out. We’ll explain it’s both our faults, that it’s past, and that we’re telling him so that he won’t hear it first from anyone else. We’ll ask for his forgiveness and help. And we’ll tell him with Jacqueline. She’ll help him over it.

KATE: Steven, it’ll hurt him ... he’ll always be afraid ... he’ll never trust ...

DEAN: It’ll hurt him worse if he hears it from Ryder, or from someone Ryder tells. And expelling Ryder wouldn’t stop him from talking.

KATE (after a pause): Alright. But If we have to hurt our son ... I want that bastard punished.

DEAN: He has been. I’ve made him my personal assistant. Workload reduction number one.

KATE: Steven, you can’t ...

DEAN: I can. I have the calendars, and Haggerty’s tape. ... Kate, if he tries to hurt anybody again, I’ll send them to the Board. Promise.

KATE: You think you can turn him.

DEAN: I have to try.

KATE (pushing the DEAN’s hair off his forehead): I suppose you do. ... You’re still the guy I fell in love with. ... But I can’t forgive him.

DEAN: I’m not asking you to.

KATE (sighing, resting her head on the DEAN’s shoulder): Workload reduction number two?

DEAN: When we drove down to Greenwich two weeks ago, John and I agreed to stop holding out for an assistant dean, and just fill the girls’ school headmistress position.

KATE (appalled, raising her head): You guys caved to John’s dad?

DEAN: We have our reasons. ... (His eyes twinkling:) What do you think of our drama offerings, Kate?

KATE: They’re non-existent.

DEAN: Perhaps that might change.

KATE (ecstatic): Oh god, Steven ... you’d do that?

DEAN: Keeping talented male faculty happy, and away from my wife, has its advantages.

KATE: Have you spoken with her?

DEAN: About that? Not yet. But I understand she’s taking no bookings past next season.

KATE: You’re kidding ...

DEAN: She’s in love. With a much too lovable schmuck whose attachment to this town, and this school, is non-negotiable. But I wouldn’t do it just for him. I’ll do it for this school, and for our son.

KATE (resting her head on the DEAN’s shoulder again): You really think he and Jacqueline can stay together? The odds against it are so long ...

DEAN: Kate, the odds are what we make them. What were the odds, a few months ago, that you and I would ever get this back again?

KATE (chagrinned): Not good.

DEAN: And who changed them?

KATE: Our son ... and a cross-dressing girl. ... So we owe?

DEAN: We owe. And even if we didn’t owe them for that, Kate ... we’d still owe them anything we can do to help them love each other.

KATE (snuggling into the DEAN’s chest): Yes, we would. ... So what’s the third thing we’re going to do?

DEAN: Kate, listen. What do you hear?

KATE (purring): Mmmm ... your heart.

DEAN: Apart from that.

KATE (lifting her head): Nothing.

DEAN: The sound of an empty house. Like it?

KATE: No.

DEAN: Neither do I.

KATE: So?

DEAN (after kissing KATE gently): Kate, give me another.

KATE: Kiss?

DEAN: Child.

KATE: You’re serious?

DEAN: It’s not too late.

KATE: Steven, I thought you’d never ask.

DEAN: Better late than never?

KATE: Better late than ever, my love.

(They kiss again – slowly, softly, tentatively, as if starting over from the beginning.)

*       *       *


	17. Scene 13 - ‘Tis new to thee

INT – FRIENDLY’S DINER. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAY – AFTERNOON).

 

(FINN is ending his story. SCOUT is clearing the plates on which the burgers and fries were served.)

FINN: ... So to Lena falls the unenviable task of trying to make sure that Ryder does the schoolwork that he can do, and asks the Dean for help with what he truly can’t do. He’s coming here to meet Lena.

HAMILTON: Dad should just boot the creep.

JAKE (slightly angry): “Ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle”? That would be easier, wouldn’t it? Wish he’d done that to me?

HAMILTON: You were already doing it to yourself.

JAKE: Ryder isn’t?

HAMILTON: You didn’t hurt people. He does.

JAKE (calming): I so wish that were true. ... Lena ... Mark’s sister ... you ... And I might have hurt your dad. You know what would have happened to him if the Board had ever learned, from anyone other than him, that a cross-dressing girl was enrolled at his boys’ school – and dating his son. You knew that before the men’s room stall door shut behind you on the night of the cotillion.

HAMILTON (calming in response): I decided it was a risk worth taking. And one my dad would someday want me to have taken. Now I know I was right ... (Taking JAKE’s hand:) ... on both counts.

(SCOUT, after exchanging awed half-smiles with LENA and WILL, takes the tray full of dirty plates and utensils to the sink behind the counter.)

JAKE (softly): Hamilton, I’ll never forget. ... Now your dad thinks Ryder’s a risk worth taking. Why don’t you want him to?

HAMILTON: Because Ryder hurts people on purpose. He enjoys it. That you never did. ... I don’t get why Dad’s doing this.

FINN: Maybe because he’s your dad.

HAMILTON: I don’t understand.

LENA: I think maybe I do.

WILL: Uh - huh.

SCOUT (returning with five sundaes on a tray): Yep. ... Oops, don’t mind me, I just work here.

(SCOUT sets the sundaes down at the end of the table, in front of the vacant chair. HAMILTON looks pleadingly to JAKE for help.)

JAKE (trying to suppress a laugh): Hammy, ever think you might be jealous of Ryder?

HAMILTON (after brief reflection): OK, maybe I am. But if Dad wanted to make some decent guy his assistant, I wouldn’t feel this way, even though that guy might spend more time with my dad than I do. I resent this because no way does Ryder deserve it.

JAKE: Hamilton, it’s not about what we deserve. I don’t deserve you. I need you.

WILL: Yeh, justice is overrated. ... (Looking gratefully at FINN:) Seriously overrated.

FINN: Hamilton, it’s natural for you to be jealous. But your father loves you no less for not giving up on Ryder. Just the opposite, I think.

JAKE: Yep. Seems to me like you’re contagious, Hammy. Your poor old dad’s catching what you’ve got.

(HAMILTON glares at JAKE.)

LENA: Maybe he likes his only son so much that he’d like to sort of adopt another. A boy who’s a lot like his son in some ways.

HAMILTON (looking at LENA, nodding): OK, I’m flattered. But I still don’t enjoy Ryder’s company. Finn, you and Lena may need to meet with him, but Jacqueline and I don’t need to stick around, do we? I know we’re the hosts here, but I’d like to split after the ice cream.

FINN: I’d like you and Jacqueline to stay a while.

HAMILTON: How long?

FINN: Long enough. You’ll know when.

HAMILTON: Finn, Ryder’s hopeless.

JAKE: Hamilton, I was hopeless.

HAMILTON (sighing): Alright. But this will not be pleasant.

LENA: If it gets unpleasant, leave. But give the guy a chance.

WILL: Just try to react to how he’s behaving now, not how he’s behaved in the past.

(HAMILTON nods his grudging consent. JAKE kisses him on the cheek.)

JAKE: OK, time to judge Calhoun’s work as a sundae confectioner. ... (Lining up the five sundaes into a row:) We do seem to have fifteen different flavors and ten different toppings. But do the flavors complement or clash? Are the toppings judiciously chosen? Lena, which of these works of art would you like to judge?

LENA: Definitely not the orange and purple and green one. Although it has to taste better than it looks.

JAKE: Really? I find that one intriguing. I think it’s orange sherbet, black raspberry and Purely Pistachio. Topped with peanut butter and gummy bears. Could be scrumptious. Only one way to know for sure, of course.

LENA: Go for it.

WILL: Uh-huh.

HAMILTON: All yours, baby.

JAKE: Finn?

FINN: Uh ... gummy bears lost their charm for me a while back.

JAKE (grabbing the sundae): Great! So, Lena, which for you?

LENA: I’ll take the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry topped with walnuts and ... what are those?

JAKE: Vanilla pound cake cubes. But Lena, that’s so dull! Whatever happened to throwing caution to the wind?

LENA (taking her sundae): Some of us have to conserve our courage for things that count.

FINN: OK, at this point I claim the privilege of seniority. Scout, the scoops under the butterscotch sauce and almonds are all nut flavors, right?

SCOUT: Butter pecan, butter crunch and maple walnut.

FINN: Things that actually match. I’ll take it. (He does.)

JAKE: Will? Pick your poison.

WILL: I don’t think I could handle the orange, brown and purple one with hot fudge sauce and pineapples. Can you, Ham?

HAMILTON (taking it): Looks good to me.

SCOUT: Of course it does. It was inspired by your summer wardrobe. That’s orange sherbet, Forbidden Chocolate and watermelon sherbet.

HAMILTON (staring at his sundae): I don’t really look like this, do I?

SCOUT: Somebody had to break it to you, buddy.

HAMILTON (hoping for reassurance): Jake?

JAKE: The orange T-shirt and the brown polyester polo with purple trim should go into the thrift shop bag, Hammy. Consider them outgrown.

SCOUT: Thank you. ... That leaves you, Will, with coffee, Vienna Mocha Chunk, and Nuts-over-Caramel, topped with Swiss chocolate and M&Ms.

WILL (glumly): Just the thing before an afternoon with the books.

SCOUT: You’ll find Bella. Be sharp for that.

WILL (smiling): Thanks.

SCOUT: Each of you has chosen his or her predestined sundae, carefully crafted to personal preferences. The only hard one was Jacqueline’s – sheer wildness is hard to premeditate.

(Shouts of “Bravo” and “Well done” all round, except from HAMILTON.)

SCOUT: I await my reward. And of money I already have enough.

JAKE: So you’d like what?

SCOUT: A kiss. From Lena.

(From all but LENA, coos of amused appreciation of SCOUT’s boldness. LENA looks down, places her napkin on the table, stands, looks into SCOUT’s eyes, cups his head in her hands, and kisses him, while WILL, HAMILTON, FINN and JAKE trade amused glances.)

SCOUT (breaking off): Let me take you away from Fleming’s melodrama this evening.

JAKE: Hamilton and I want Lena with us at dinner, Calhoun.

LENA: But after dinner, yes, I’ll want to hide. And Scout, there’s no one I’d rather hide with tonight.

SCOUT: Not just tonight, I hope.

LENA: Until one of us is more needed elsewhere. But it shouldn’t last. Being with you will be too pleasant, too easy, Scout. We’re too alike to help each other grow, and each of us needs to be needed more than either of us needs the other.

SCOUT: Only one way to find out, girl.

LENA: And we will. But you’re wondering whether you might be in love with someone else - someone who needs you a lot more than I do, but isn’t ready for you yet - aren't you?

SCOUT: Oh crap ... Fleming! Where do you get off?

HAMILTON (softly): You want to hurt her even more than Jake or I or Mark did?

SCOUT: I never said I might be in love with ... someone else.

HAMILTON: Not in so many words. You didn’t have to.

FINN: Mr. Calhoun, a young lady just told you she’d welcome your company tonight. ... Off campus, and only while we’re on break, of course.

SCOUT (calming): Of course. ... (To LENA:) Thank you.

LENA: You will, tonight. And you and I have no better friends than Ham and Jacqueline and Mark. If you try to do what they think you might like to try to do, it’ll be hard. You could be lonely for quite a while. I’d like to try to help you through as much of that as I can. I’d take you anyhow ... but that makes you more attractive to me, not less. Our friends know that – they know me.

(WILL slides a hand across the table to squeeze one of JAKE’s.)

SCOUT: Ham, Jacqueline ...

JAKE (grinning): It’s cool. Just be good tonight.

LENA: But it’s not just you, Scout. There’s someone who needs help that I’d like to try to help, too. Someone who’s not ready for me, and may not be for a while, if he wants my help at all. I’d like to try to stay ready for him, but I could use some help. I’ve had enough of being alone.

SCOUT: Who?

LENA: The guy the Dean has set me up with.

SCOUT: Ryder? You can’t be serious.

WILL: That’s human sacrifice, Lena.

HAMILTON: Ryder doesn’t deserve so much a smile from you. And my dad did not “set you up” with him. You’re just his homework monitor.

LENA (turning back toward the group, but pulling SCOUT’s arms around her): Hamilton, as Jacqueline said: none of us deserves anything. It’s all a gift. But Ryder needs someone like me now more than Scout ever will. You, of all people, should understand.

WILL: Lena, there are lots of emotionally needy guys. They’re not all total jerks like Ryder. And Hamilton’s right: the Dean isn’t asking you to do this.

LENA: Isn’t he? Did he really choose me, a first-year girl, just to ride herd on a second-year guy academically? Almost any upperclass student could do that better – and lighten the Dean’s tutoring load. And what does he know about me, personally? Chiefly what you what you’ve told him, Will, based on what Jacqueline and Hamilton told you. And what is that?

WILL: Oh Lena, I’m sorry.

LENA: Don’t be. Maybe the Dean knows his business.

SCOUT: You plan, deliberately, to get emotionally involved with a guy addicted to malice? ... (Nuzzling LENA’s neck:) To try to help him go cold turkey – so to speak?

(Groans all round, save from LENA, who smiles.)

LENA: I can’t not try, Scout.

SCOUT (softly, kissing LENA’s head): Then I’m with you.

JAKE: Ditto.

WILL: Me too.

SCOUT (all over LENA): You’re so brave ...

LENA: No. ... (Disengaging affectionately from SCOUT, she retakes her seat.  Taking one of JAKE’s hands:) This girl’s brave – and her courage is what’s really been contagious here. I’m just afraid of not trying. When someone needs love, and you can give it, but you don’t, then what’s eating him or her takes a bite out of you, too – doesn’t it, Hamilton?

HAMILTON (after a pause): Yeh. ... Look, I’ll try to be civil. That’s the most I can promise.

LENA: It’s enough ...

JAKE (again kissing HAMILTON’s cheek): For now. ... Dig in, everybody.

(WILL, FINN, JAKE and LENA attack their sundaes. HAMILTON tentatively takes a bite of his.)

HAMILTON: Tastes better than it looks.

JAKE: Heavenly! Scout, you’re a genius.

LENA: Delightfully undemanding.

FINN: Pleasantly predictable.

WILL: Good, as always.

SCOUT: Glad you like them.

WILL (to FINN): So where is Ryder?

FINN: Late.

SCOUT: But his Corvette’s been parked across the street ever since I came out of the kitchen with the sundaes.

(The others all turn to look at the street, but, finding their view blocked by the snowbank, turn back and continue to attack their sundaes.)

WILL: Let’s hope he’s not amazing Grace.

(Moans of distaste and revulsion all round.)

SCOUT: If he was, he was quick about it. He’s back at his hot-rod ... and heading here.

JAKE (setting down her spoon): Lena, come help me powder my nose. Be back soon, guys.

(LENA and JAKE get up and go into the restroom, JAKE carrying her backpack and grabbing HAMILTON’s denim jacket. The three boys look at one another and grin. HAMILTON slides to the left to the end of the window seat, pours what’s left of the girls’ cokes into his own glass. WILL stuffs the girls’ napkins and spoons into the empty glasses. SCOUT whisks them away to the kitchen. FINN, shaking his head in mock disapprobation, shifts to where HAMILTON had been sitting. WILL, HAMILTON and FINN resume eating their sundaes.)

RYDER enters, dressed in a black jacket, white turtleneck, white dress shirt, black slacks, and white-and-black rugby-striped scarf, a bookbag slug over a shoulder.)

FINN: Good of you to join us, Ryder.

RYDER: Good afternoon, Finn. ... (Sitting down in the chair facing the window:) Fleming, Krudski. Double helpings of triple-scoop sundaes with double toppings, eh? Good to see you both embracing your destinies.

FINN: You were, I gather, unavoidably detained?

RYDER: Alas, yes. I found myself pressed into service as an angel of mercy without proper qualifications or credentials.

FINN: Care to be more specific?

RYDER: As much as I may in present company. ... (To WILL and HAMILTON:) I was sent bearing glad tidings that must remain unspecified to a young lady who must remain anonymous. ... (To FINN:) First my credentials were questioned. For reasons I cannot fathom, a practical joke was suspected. A phone call to my employer was required to establish my _bona fide_ ’s.

HAMILTON: Yeh, some people still think my dad’s not insane.

RYDER (ignoring HAMILTON): But no sooner was my message credited, than a bout of blubbering ensued, and I found myself holding a weeping woman until that abated. I trust my halo remains untarnished?

(Behind RYDER, JAKE approaches from the restroom, now in her new one-shoulder dress.)

FINN: Quite.

RYDER: So, which of these sundae scarfers is to be my study buddy? Are we keeping the matter all in the Fleming family? Or is the task deemed so formidable as to require Mr. Krudski’s intellect?

JAKE (standing behind RYDER): You can have Krudski, Ryder. ... (Sliding into the seat next to HAMILTON:) But Hamilton is _my_ study buddy.

FINN: Forrest, I believe you’re acquainted with Jake Pratt?

RYDER (ogling JAKE appreciatively, not troubling to feign surprise): I am. And I quite approve of the make-over. But although we have been introduced, I suspect it was not done properly. “Jake” seems a bit off, somehow.

JAKE: Jacqueline. (She takes back her sundae.)

RYDER (rolling her name in his mouth): Jacqueline ...

(SCOUT brings JAKE a new spoon and napkin. She resumes eating. )

RYDER: You know, this did seem the more likely of the two possibilities presented by your summer romance. In the library, the week before summer session ended, you smelled suggestively pleasant. And the faintest glimmer of female flesh had Hamilton drooling enviously all last year. But the way to confirm any hypothesis is to investigate the alternative.

FINN: You outed them for gay because you knew they weren’t?

RYDER: Knew? No. What can we truly know with certainty, Finn? Rather an intuition, some evanescence of empathy. ... I might hope, Jacqueline, that you were the light sent to guide me on the straight and narrow path. But I understand that you are no longer enrolled here. Why is that, given that you and Hamilton seem so fond of each other’s company?

JAKE: Hamilton wouldn’t let me come back to Rawley this fall. He insisted on giving me up most of the time this year so that I could stop cross-dressing. I was hurt, Ryder, and healing me mattered more to Hamilton than being with me. He only let me stay here long enough to heal me enough, to make me strong enough, to keep on healing when he couldn’t be with me all the time.

WILL: And he planned to do that from the start. Ham committed to Jacqueline knowing he’d have to risk expulsion for her, pretend to be gay for her, then give her up most of the time.

(RYDER, disconcerted, stares briefly at HAMILTON. Recovering, he turns back to JAKE.)

RYDER (to JAKE): But your no-longer-hidden charms compelled him nonetheless. How romantic! How long after your revelation of deception was his first passionate embrace? Do tell me it wasn’t long, that love swiftly vanquished all obstacles. “ _Omnia vincit amor et nos cedamus amori_.”

JAKE: Actually, Ryder, it wasn’t quite like that.

RYDER: How sad! My idyll’s shattered. So, how not?

(LENA comes out of the restroom, carrying JAKE’s backpack slung over one shoulder and dressed in what seems to be drag: HAMILTON’s denim jacket, unbuttoned but concealing, JAKE’s loose-fit jeans and blue denim cap, her hair tucked up under it. She stands quietly behind RYDER.)

WILL: When Hamilton first went for Jake, he thought Jake was a guy. Hamilton hated the thought of being gay, but Jake needed him desperately, and couldn’t hide it, and Hamilton couldn’t bear to hurt Jake.

(A pause.)

RYDER (staring at HAMILTON): “O brave new world, that has such people in it.”

LENA: “‘Tis new to thee.”

Ryder (turning, looking up at LENA): And you are ... ?

FINN: Your new taskmaster, Ryder.

(Ryder looks at her, puzzled.)

(LENA removes her cap, shakes out her hair, straightens her torso, juts out her chin, lips pursed, eyes narrowed.)

RYDER (standing): Lena?

(LENA looks him up and down, not deigning to speak to him. She takes off the denim jacket, hangs it up, hands the backpack to HAMILTON. Seating herself next to WILL, across from JAKE, she pulls up her sundae, looks at it, then straight at RYDER, who remains standing. She raises an eyebrow, waits.

Finally RYDER sees what she wants. He turns around. To find SCOUT holding up a napkin-wrapped spoon, almost in RYDER’s face. Slowly, RYDER takes it, sets it down beside LENA’s sundae. LENA briefly flashes him a contemptuously false smile.)

LENA: Thank you. (She touches neither napkin nor spoon. Looks at her sundae, then at HAMILTON.)

HAMILTON: Ryder, Jacqueline and I are hosting this gathering to thank people who have helped us. You never intended to help us, yet you have. Please join us.

(RYDER looks at LENA. Her eyes jerk downward toward the vacant chair.)

RYDER (retaking his seat): My pleasure. Thank you.

JAKE: Master confectioner, a sundae, please.

SCOUT: Coming right up. (He exits to the kitchen.)

JAKE: So Ryder, where were we before Lena arrived?

RYDER: I believe you were answering my presumptuously indiscreet questions about your love life.

JAKE: I was. Is your curiosity sated?

RYDER: Not quite. If you’re willing, I’d like to ask the obvious question.

JAKE: You mean, why didn’t I tell Hamilton that I’m a girl?

RYDER: Yes. Were you afraid he might tell his father?

HAMILTON (laughing): Not even close. The third day of summer session, when she didn’t know anything about me except who my father is, she told me something that could have gotten her expelled if I’d ratted her out.

RYDER: Bold.

JAKE: No, pathetic. I thought I didn’t have anything to lose.

RYDER: So why, then? Why didn’t you just tell him?

JAKE: Ryder, think about the context. I wouldn’t just have been saying, “I’m a girl.” I’d have been saying: “I’m a straight girl pretending to be a guy at an all-boys’ boarding school.” Regardless of why I was doing that, it’s really messed up. A lot more messed up than being a gay guy, which is what Hamilton thought I was.

RYDER: You were afraid you’d lose him if you told him.

JAKE: Yes. And when I did tell him, right after the first time he kissed me, I almost did lose him. He was horrified.

RYDER: Ah ... My sated curiosity thanks you.

JAKE: Even worse, telling Hamilton meant having to admit to myself how messed up I was, having to think about why I was so messed up, about why I was hurting myself, and I really didn’t want to do that.

RYDER: You needn’t bleed all over the table for me, darling. It’s not properly my business.

JAKE: Is that true, Ryder? Or are all nasty emotional messes a lot alike? Not in what causes them, but in what they do to you. And why does hearing about mine make you uneasy?

HAMILTON: Jake, he’s right, you don’t have to do this.

JAKE (holding up her hand to quiet HAMILTON): Ryder, I was testing Hamilton. Not consciously, but it was no less cruel for not being conscious. I felt unlovable, Ryder. I needed to know I could be loved for my personality, not just my body. So I made myself unlovably ugly. Amazingly, the guy I wanted loved me anyhow. He passed my test, he kissed the frog. But I put him through hell. I had no right to do that.

(SCOUT enters from the kitchen with a sundae, but refrains from interrupting by serving it.)

RYDER: Pratt, this is more than I need to know. What’s the point? That I need desperately to be loved? For my personality, not my body?

JAKE: No, Ryder. I suspect you need to be loved for what you could be by someone who hates what you are. You’ve given up on love, you hate yourself, and you can accept love only from someone else who hates you. So you make yourself odious. Because if someone hates what you are, but loves you anyhow, you’ll have made love prove it’s real, won’t you?

RYDER: You don’t know me.

JAKE: You’re just another bloke cross-dressing in search of a miracle, Ryder. We’re a penny a dozen.

RYDER: Enough. Finn, I may have to work with Lena and you, but must I endure amateur psychoanalysis?

FINN: Ryder, you don’t have to do anything, but you’d be foolish to dismiss what you just heard. And it’s not psychoanalysis – just plain old-fashioned empathy.

RYDER: Great, so it’s old. And the story’s old, too - a warmed-over fairy tale.

LENA: “‘Tis new to thee.”

RYDER: And what are you, Poe’s raven, always croaking the same line? Why are you here? Why am I here with you? What ...

(LENA shuts RYDER up by kissing him. It’s as compassionately passionless as a full kiss could be. FINN, WILL, and SCOUT exchange grins at LENA’s audacity. JAKE and HAMILTON smile softly at each other.)

LENA (breaking off, smiling at RYDER condescendingly, caressing his face): That’s what I am, Ryder. And we are here to love one another, not to like one another. More specifically, you are here with me for two reasons.

RYDER: Enlighten me.

LENA (lightly brushing RYDER’s neck): First, because your accomplished cultivation of malice as an art form is widely viewed as evidence of gifts, not wholly limited to your exquisite body, that might be turned to better use. ... (Skimming the turtleneck over RYDER’s chest with the back of her hand:) Second, because no one likes you. No one trusts you, not even to do your coursework.

(LENA ceases to smile and pulls away, regarding RYDER with evident contempt.)

SCOUT (serving): Your sundae, Ryder.

JAKE: Three scoops of vanilla?

SCOUT: Yes and no. Three scoops of the same flavor would be unthinkable. But we have three flavors of vanilla: French vanilla, vanilla frozen yogurt, and plain vanilla vanilla. Topped with four items from my personal reserve: melted white chocolate, ground cloves, milled cinnamon; and ... (to RYDER, pulling his flask out of a trouser pocket:) ... brandy?

RYDER: Yes please. ... (Looking at LENA:) I may need it.

SCOUT: It comes with complimentary visual display and poetry reading.

RYDER: Has William penned me another love poem?

SCOUT (pouring on brandy from his pocket flask): No. I believe I heard you quote Virgil, Ryder. How’s your Catullus?

RYDER: Spotty.

SCOUT (pulling a lighter out of another trouser pocket): _Odi et amo_?

RYDER: That I recall.

SCOUT (setting the brandy aflame): Would you like to recite it, or shall I?

RYDER (staring into the flames):

          _Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris?_  
_Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior._

LENA (also staring into the flames):

          I hate and I love. Why? I can’t explain.  
          It’s just what I feel: agonizing pain.

(LENA blows out the brandy flames, then smiles a condescending false smile at RYDER.)

(RYDER picks up his spoon. LENA finally picks up hers. RYDER, seeing that she’s waited for him, smiles for the first time. LENA, for the first time, gives him a real smile, then digs into her sundae.)

RYDER (taking a bite of his sundae): Mmmm. Not half bad, Calhoun.

(LENA stops eating, again smiles condescendingly at RYDER, waits. Finally RYDER takes the cue. He digs out a spoonful of his sundae, holds it up, tilts his head, and quizzically returns her false smile. LENA bats her eyes, opens her mouth. RYDER feeds her. She likes it. With equal silence and sarcasm, LENA offers RYDER a bite of her sundae. He accepts. Around the table, eyes roll at this pantomime of flirtation.)

HAMILTON (transferring the last gift bag from the shopping bag to JAKE’s backpack): I think Jake and I have outstayed our usefulness. And we’d like to visit Bella this afternoon.

JAKE (standing, stuffing the paperweight into her backpack and removing her money clip from it): Yep. Scout, the check, please.

RYDER (raising an eyebrow): A less than complete transformation, Hamilton?

HAMILTON (standing, as JAKE hands SCOUT a C-note): Wouldn’t have it any other way, Ryder.

RYDER (looking LENA up and down, then at HAMILTON): I think I may understand what you mean.

HAMILTON (putting on his jacket and grabbing JAKE’s backpack): Will, come with us.

(JAKE holds out her hand to WILL, underscoring HAMILTON’s imperative. LENA stands to let WILL out of the booth.)

WILL (standing up, taking JAKE’s hand, gazing into her eyes): Thanks.

(SCOUT, smiling, rings up the sale on the cash register. LENA sits back down. WILL takes down JAKE’s parka, starts to help her into it. JAKE looks back at him over her shoulder, inviting him to do that well. With unabashed pleasure, WILL does.)

HAMILTON (handing SCOUT WILL’s gift bag): Scout, would you please take this back to your room for Will? We could be a while.

SCOUT (nodding, looking into HAMILTON’s eyes): Gladly. (He hands JAKE her change, takes the bag.)

JAKE (handing SCOUT back a twenty and pocketing the rest): You did good, working boy. I suppose it’d be bad form to ask what worthy cause I’m contributing to?

SCOUT: Very bad.

WILL: Ah, but bad form can be instructive. Somehow, Jacqueline, this diner has wi-fi now. There’s hardly an empty seat after school lets out. And Charlie’s old gas pumps now have the globes they were made to hold, lit by phosphorescent paint inside the globes. Some pranksters installed them Halloween night. People from out of town fill up at Charlie’s just to take pictures of each other with them.

SCOUT (glaring at WILL): My roommate is conjecturing.

WILL: Am I? Your rattiest pair of jeans now has paint stains that glow in our closet. You and Ham spent Halloween night together. And a photo on some of the photo-placemats we use to protect laptops from spills, which showed up here the day wi-fi was installed, is also in Hamilton’s Thanksgiving calendars.

HAMILTON (to SCOUT, wincing): Oops ... sorry, guy.

JAKE (after smiling at HAMILTON): Seems I have an excuse to give you something for yourself, Calhoun. Come here.

(SCOUT, after getting a nod from HAMILTON, comes out from behind the counter, to JAKE. As he starts to lean in for a kiss, JAKE pulls out of an inside parka pocket SCOUT’s monogrammed handkerchief, laundered, neatly folded. She turns it over. Embroidered on the corner opposite SCOUT’s initials is:

Scout –

_Pour toi, la porte reste toujours ouverte_.

Thanksgiving Present

SCOUT (taking JAKE’s hand with the handkerchief): _Encore une fois tu dépasses mes attentes_.

JAKE: _Tu le rends facile_.

SCOUT: And now I have two embroidered handkerchiefs … from Homecoming and Thanksgiving.

JAKE (stuffing the handkerchief into one of SCOUT’s trouser pockets): I know.

(JAKE kisses SCOUT, pulling in HAMILTON. As RYDER and LENA watch, their hands join on the tabletop. Both feign unawareness of it. WILL walks quietly toward the door, exchanging a smile with FINN. When HAMILTON and JAKE disengage from SCOUT, RYDER and LENA look at their hands, then withdraw them, shrugging at each other. HAMILTON and JAKE join WILL by the door.)

JAKE: Lena, we’ll see you at dinner.

LENA: For sure.

JAKE Guys, I’m out of here tomorrow afternoon. I’ll see ya when I see ya.

FINN: You’ll definitely see me tomorrow.

SCOUT: I’ll find you before you leave.

RYDER: Wait, please. ... (He stands, walks to face JAKE.) Jacqueline, thank you. ... (Opening the door for her:) Enjoy your chat with Miss Banks.

(JAKE smiles at RYDER and leaves the diner, WILL and HAMILTON following. They find a gap in the snowbank and cross the street. RYDER closes the door and sits back down.)

SCOUT (clearing HAMILTON's, JAKE's and WILL's sundae cups and Coke glasses): Some hot chocolate? My treat.

LENA: Lovely. Yes, please, Scout.

FINN: Thanks, but I really should go. (He slides out of the booth, stands.)

RYDER (taking a notebook and a laptop out of his bag and setting them on the table): Can’t let a lady drink alone.

FINN (To RYDER and LENA): You two know what you’re supposed to do.

SCOUT: Got an irresistible urge to concoct a pop quiz, Finn?

FINN: No, a guest from out of town. I should ... Whom I should go meet.

SCOUT: Lena ... Did we just hear a syntax inversion that obviated a gender-inflected pronoun?

LENA: I believe we did. ... (She looks FINN up and down, stands up, moves next to FINN, gives him a coquettish smile, touches his sweater.) Nice sweater, too, Finn. Neatly pressed slacks. And is that ... (Sniffing:) cologne?

RYDER (to FINN, with mock sympathy): Teaching at an academically selective school has its drawbacks.

SCOUT: So, Finn, who’s the lucky lady?

FINN (disengaging from LENA and putting on his coat): Jacqueline and Hamilton will meet my guest tomorrow. Ask one of them. ... Ryder, would you see me out, please? I’d like a word.

(RYDER stands up. FINN heads toward the door, RYDER following.)

FINN: Good afternoon.

LENA: Good afternoon, Finn.

SCOUT: Is that the best you can do, Lena? I think we should wish him a good night, too.

LENA: You’re right. And sweet dreams!

RYDER (to LENA, while holding the door for FINN): Excuse me. I’ll be back.

(Before FINN can go out the door, GRACE Banks bounces in through it, wearing jeans and a sweater under a jacket.)

GRACE: Thank you, Ryder. ‘Afternoon, Finn.

RYDER: My pleasure.

FINN: ‘Afternoon, Grace.

(FINN and RYDER go outside, stand in front of the restaurant window. FINN faces inward toward the restaurant, talks slowly and seriously to RYDER. GRACE stands by the door, looking at SCOUT.)

SCOUT: Hi, Grace. Can I get you something? Whatever you’d like, it’s on me.

GRACE: Thanks, Scout, I just came by to talk.

SCOUT (smiling, coming out from behind the counter): Grace Banks, Lena Rosenfeld. Lena goes to Rawley Girls’. Grace is the sister of Bella, the girl our friends just left to go see.

LENA: Hi, Grace.

GRACE: Hi, Lena. ... Scout, I just sent your friends after Bella. She went out, Dad’s tending the pumps. So how about telling me?

SCOUT (clearing FINN's sundae cup and Coke glass): About what?

GRACE: Duh! ... About “Jake.” I thought Rawley guys were supposed to be smart.

SCOUT (wiping the table): Sorry. You just found out?

GRACE: Uh-huh. So you’ve known for a while? So has Hamilton, obviously. And Will? And Bella?

SCOUT: Uh ... yeh. It’s a long story …

GRACE (taking off her jacket, hanging it): I’ve got time.

SCOUT: OK. ... After I wash these dishes, we’ll sit down over a couple of hot chocolates.

GRACE (pushing her sweater-sleeves up her arm): You wash, I’ll dry. Start talking, whatever-it-is-you-are-to-me.

(GRACE goes behind the counter, grabs a towel, turns on the hot water faucet. SCOUT joins her at the sink, puts down the bus tray, picks up a sponge, soaps it, starts to wash the dishes. As SCOUT hands GRACE the first clean glass, they smile at each other, and SCOUT begins to talk.

LENA, looking up from perusing her gift, watching SCOUT and GRACE, smiles too.)

 

*       *       *


	18. Scene 14 - And failure’s no success at all

EXT - FRIENDLY’S DINER. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAY - AFTERNOON)

 

(FINN stands facing the diner window, talking to RYDER, but looking mostly at SCOUT and GRACE, washing the dishes. RYDER stands facing him, back to the window.)

RYDER (looking miserable): And?

FINN: I’m still on the faculty. And I’m invited to dinner at the Fleming’s tonight.

RYDER: Wonders never cease. ... And all this just to make sure I don’t have any dirt on anybody?

FINN: Looks that way, Forrest.

RYDER: Bloody hell. ... I’m so beat.

FINN: Only if you want to be.

RDYER: Finn, if the Dean’s told you and me that he knows about you and Kate, then ... he’ll be telling his wife and son, too, won’t he?

FINN: Seems likely.

(A pause.)

RYDER (softly, his eyes tearing): I can’t stay here. I can’t face these people. (He turns to leave.)

FINN (gripping RYDER’s shoulders): You can. Nothing you’ve done can’t be made good, so good that all of us, even you, will be thankful you did that. Or you can hurt us all one last time, in a way you can never make good. You can leave.

RYDER: Finn, my leaving will hurt no one.

FINN: “If a clod be washed away by the sea ...”

RYDER: Empty rhetoric.

FINN: It’s not.

RYDER: How not?

FINN: Think. Think what you can do to make this right.

RYDER (nodding his acceptance of the challenge, pulling free of FINN’s grasp, quickly wiping his eyes, looking at FINN fiercely): Has the Dean told Mrs. Fleming yet?

FINN: I don’t know. But he hasn't told Hamilton. 

RYDER: Obviously. Hamilton just ate with you.

FINN (shaking his head): The Dean would tell him without naming me - or you. But I'd have seen it in Hamilton's eyes. It wasn't there, and I think he and Jacqueline will be with Will and Bella for some time.

RYDER: So if Lena and I finish up here quickly ... ?

FINN: There’s still time to stop the worst of it.

RYDER: Then I’d best do that. Go meet your guest. And ... thank you ... very much. (He turns to go inside.)

FINN: Forrest ...

(RYDER stops, turns back to face FINN.)

FINN: It’s supposed to hurt. But it won’t hurt forever.

(RYDER nods, goes back inside. FINN watches a humbled RYDER sit down with a responsively less contemptuous LENA, briefly watches SCOUT talk affectionately to a rapt GRACE, then turns and walks up the sidewalk.)

 

*       *       *


	19. Scene 15 – Lattes and logistics

EXT - NEW RAWLEY GENERAL STORE CAFÉ. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DAY - AFTERNOON).

From the town common, the camera pans in on a Federal-style three-story red-brick building across the street, behind a high snowbank that glistens as it melts in the sunlight. On the side of the building is an external wooden stairway to its upper floors. An oval sign, protruding over the front door, bears the words, “General Store Café.”

The ground floor, seen through the windows that form its front wall, retains much of the character of the general store that it once was. The walls are pinewood-paneled, the floor hardwood. A long counter, chiefly of glass cases displaying baked goods, lines a side wall. Behind it, below inlaid wooden shelves, stands an array of espresso machines. Club chairs and mission-style settees grouped around low tables are set against the side wall opposite the counter, with wooden tables for two or four in the center. In the rear, a spiral stairway leads to an upper floor. The café is about one-third full.

SEAN, in jeans, flannel shirt and open parka, breaks off talking with two girls in the queue behind him to take two coffees, one large, one small, from the counter attendant. He carries them to the staircase, exchanging greetings with three high-school-aged guys seated at a table, and starts up the stairs.

 

 

INT – NEW RAWLEY GENERAL STORE CAFÉ, SECOND FLOOR. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (AFTERNOON).

(SEAN emerges at the top of the stairs on the second floor of the café. Four large windows at the front overlook the town common. At the rear is a shut door. The second floor is furnished like the first, save that groups of settees and chairs line both side walls. About half the seats are filled. Customers include a prep school couple necking on a settee looking out the nearer side window and a young townie couple, the boy in an Edmund High letter jacket, holding hands and talking at a table in the back.

ANNE sits on a settee looking out the farther side window.  Her parka and two motorcycle helmets lie on a club chair grouped with that settee around a coffee table. Her boots stand at the foot of the chair.  SEAN spots ANNE, carries the two coffees toward her.)

SEAN (bending over ANNE from behind the settee, handing her larger coffee): One skim latte with cinnamon.

ANNE: Thanks.

SEAN (setting his coffee, an espresso, on the table in front of the settee): Thanks for the sled ride.

ANNE: Sorry we had to cut that short.

SEAN (removing his parka, tossing it on the club chair): It’s OK. You could be almost as much fun as a sled.

ANNE (arching an eyebrow): Kinda faint praise, boy.

SEAN (scraping off his boots): Townie irony, prep girl.

ANNE: You’ll notice I snagged us the best seats in the house.

SEAN (sitting down beside ANNE, picking up his coffee): You did. And mine’s warm.

ANNE: The couple at the back table vacated this couch for us.

SEAN (looking back): They’re juniors at my school.

ANNE: Yeh, the Edmund High letter jacket’s kinda hard to miss. They said they know you.

SEAN: Friends of my sister. Tell me you didn’t pay them.

ANNE: I didn’t. You will.

SEAN (drinking, smiling): What have you gotten me into?

ANNE: You owe them a love story about a cross-dressing girl at the prep school. I told them it’ll be the talk of the town this week, and that you’ve been in on the secret for months. If I were you I’d bring Liz when you pay that debt. I mean, look at them. They’re gorgeous.

SEAN: And you’re shameless.

ANNE: Totally. And they’re nice.

SEAN: Yeh, they are.

(SEAN raises his coffee cup to the couple at the back table. They nod and smile back.)

SEAN (sipping his coffee): How’s Jacqueline?

ANNE: Happier than I’ve ever seen her.

SEAN: I’m glad. Last August she seemed … pretty badly hurt.

ANNE: She’s better now. (She sips her coffee.)

SEAN: So Will and Bella have told me. But it’s good to hear it from her roommate.

ANNE: You don’t have to take my word for it.

SEAN: Liz and I have some work to do first.

ANNE (smiling): Yeh, you do.

SEAN: So how hard has it been?

ANNE: What?

SEAN: Holding Jacqueline together.

ANNE: You should ask Hamilton that.

SEAN: He’s with her, what, one or two nights a week? The other nights, whose shoulder does she cry on, Anne?

ANNE: She’s a joy, Sean.

SEAN: I don’t doubt it. Still, you can’t unload on Mark, or Hamilton, or Bella, can you? They’re all carrying too much weight already.

ANNE: God … you really care.

SEAN (setting down his coffee): I don’t like being useless.

(SEAN folds one leg under him and pulls ANNE close, her back to his chest, cradling her on his lap.)

ANNE (purring, nestling back into SEAN): Jackie’s hurt a lot of people, Sean. … Hamilton, Ham’s parents, Mark, Lena, Liz, Scout … She feels guilty. And she’s desperate to give back.

SEAN: And she hasn’t been able to … cooped up at Grottlesex?

ANNE: Not enough.

SEAN (nuzzling ANNE’s head): That’s ending.

ANNE: Right. Now the work starts.

SEAN: You and I’ll help … with Mark and Liz.

ANNE (turning her head, smiling at SEAN): We will. You were brilliant at the boathouse. You couldn’t be doing better with Mark … or with me … or with Jackie and Ham. … (She sets down her latte.) … Mark and I were with them this morning. Ham liked your gift.

SEAN: Uh … what gift?

ANNE: The one you asked Will to give him Wednesday.

SEAN: Oh …

ANNE: But Ham asked me to ask you to speak for yourself next time. And Jackie’s so right about you … and me.

SEAN: What?

ANNE: You really are a ripped blonde hunk who’s a total sweetheart. And I’m a way better messenger than Will Krudski. (She pulls SEAN’s head down, kisses him).

SEAN (breaking off): Yeh, you are.

(ANNE turns to place her side rather than her back against SEAN. They spend a moment bonding silently, SEAN fondling ANNE’s face, she his chest.)

ANNE: Can we talk logistics?

SEAN: Logistics?

ANNE: Where do you plan to take Liz after the four of us are done here?

SEAN: Liz’s room at her school. Her roommate’s great, and happy to let us have their room tonight.

ANNE: Brooke?

SEAN: Yeh. You know her?

ANNE: No, but Mark’s mentioned her. Another person I look forward to meeting. … And you’ll eat dinner at the school dining hall?

SEAN: It’s close to Liz’s dorm, and we’ll have better things to do than walk to town and back.

ANNE: At the dining hall this evening, Jacqueline will come out as a girl, I’ll come out as Mark’s girlfriend, and Mark and Ham will come out as straight. If you and Liz would like to join the four of us, we’d welcome your company. But it’s likely to be a bit of a circus.

SEAN: It sounds like fun. But I think Liz and I will pass. We’d like to be close to the four of you, but we’re not yet. And we’re new – we’d like some privacy tonight. I think we’d rather just watch from across the dining hall. That OK?

ANNE: Completely. But if Mark’s sister is in the dining hall, with a guy Hamilton introduced her to four days ago in front of half the girls’ school … you and she may get caught up in our circus, whether you sit with us or not.

SEAN: Oh. … (Glumly:) Good point, thanks. Much as we’d enjoy seeing the show, Liz and I won’t want to be part of it. We’ll eat in town.

ANNE: Sorry.

SEAN (kissing ANNE’s head): It’s nothing. Have fun at dinner.

ANNE: I’m sure we will. But you and Liz may not get a lot of privacy in her dorm tonight, either. This evening the whole prep school will hear the story you heard on your walk to Carson, and some but not all of what you’ll hear in a few minutes. Mark’s part of that, and a lot of girls may be happy for Liz about what they hear, and curious about what we’ve left out …

SEAN: Oh god … Thanks for the warning.

ANNE (unbuttoning SEAN’s shirt a bit): I don’t suppose you could use your room at home?

SEAN: Not until my parents know that Liz’s parents approve. I’ll try to win their blessing over Christmas break. I’ve been invited to spend as much of it as I want with the Johnsons.

ANNE: Then I expect I’ll see you in Short Hills. And don’t worry, you’ll charm them.

SEAN: I’ll try. But until Christmas break, Liz and I are stuck using her dorm room.

ANNE: Mark kind of expected that. So he’s asked me to ask you please to let him give you and Liz something, just for tonight. (She pulls a room key out of her jeans pocket.)

SEAN: A room at the Inn?

ANNE: The efficiency apartment upstairs in the loft of this building. Mark thought you’d like it better than the Inn. Totally private. The stairs outside lead up to it. The paperwork’s all done. Just leave the key in the apartment tomorrow morning. (She sets the key on the table.)

SEAN: Anne … that’s … perfect. But I can’t accept it.

ANNE (slipping a hand inside SEAN’s shirt): Mark would like tonight to be special for you and Liz. And not ruined by our drama at his school.

SEAN: I just can’t take this.

ANNE: Look, Sean … Mark told me to let you turn this down, if you insist, and to tell you that the apartment won’t go unused tonight if you do. Plenty of couples at his school would jump at it. But just from me to you, Sean – to make it work with Liz, you’ll need to swallow some of your townie pride and compromise on the money issue.

SEAN: I know. Scout’s been really helpful. And Liz and I have discussed it.

ANNE: And?

SEAN. When we’re on break, I’ll be a rich girl’s boyfriend – she can take me anywhere. But here in town, she’s a townie’s girlfriend, and we limit the luxuries. And what Mark is offering is a luxury. If I cave at the start …

ANNE: First nights only happen once, Sean. Mark won’t try to shower you with luxuries routinely, I promise.

SEAN: He’s smart to get you to ask me to do this, beautiful.

ANNE: You’ll take it?

SEAN (taking the key): On one condition.

ANNE: What?

SEAN (putting the key into his shirt pocket): You and Mark tell Liz and me, upstairs, the part of the story that we haven’t heard yet.

ANNE: Premature, boy.

SEAN (nuzzling ANNE’s neck): Your story’s going to be about how you and Mark got together, and how you two got together with Jacqueline and Hamilton, and what the four of you are. If Liz and I have a room with a bed in it upstairs, that’s where we’d like to hear it.

ANNE (withdrawing her hand): You and Liz need to get to know each other alone.

SEAN (softly, running his hands over ANNE’s arms): And we will. But you and Mark could help start us off … hold us … inspire us …

ANNE: Sean …

SEAN: Let’s start healing our twins.

ANNE: When Jackie first told me part of what you and Liz are about to hear, I begged her for an introduction to Mark. If Liz hears that in a private room with Mark … she’s likely to want to show him some affection.

SEAN: Great. I hope he lets her. That’s exactly what needs to happen. Once they see that they can be affectionate safely, it’ll become less desperate … maybe almost normal.

ANNE: I know. But things could go off script.

SEAN: If it does, we’ll deal with it. Liz and I have a whole night. And for Liz to get her twin brother back – honest, straight, and affectionate – is the best first-night gift I could give her.

ANNE: No, you are, boy.

SEAN: I can’t heal Liz by making love to her, Anne. … Besides, no way will Liz want to hear the rest of the story here after she learns we have an apartment upstairs.

ANNE: You could not tell her about that until Mark and I have told our story and left.

SEAN: That’s not happening. Liz has been deceived enough. And anything she’d like that I can give her tonight, she’ll get.

ANNE (smiling): Alright.

SEAN: Thanks. … (He takes ANNE’s hands.) Are we done with logistics?

ANNE: I hope so.

SEAN: Then may ask for your help with something, please?

ANNE: Of course. What’s up?

SEAN: I need advice. There are two people who’ve been hurt by Mark’s shutting out Liz, and I don’t think Mark knows about it. Neither of them’s been hurt seriously – but enough to make Mark, Ham and especially Jacqueline feel bad. And Liz may want to get close to them, with me, soon.

ANNE: Who are they?

SEAN: Liz’s roommate, Brooke Sumner, and a first-year guy, Stewart Prescott, who’s a running back on Rawley's JD football team. I’ve played against him.

ANNE: How’d they get hurt?

SEAN: Brooke and Stewart have been interested in each other all this term, but they’re still not together. Brooke has put Stewart on hold in order to be there for Liz. She’s held Liz together while Mark shut Liz out and pretended to be gay.

ANNE: You’re right, Mark didn’t know that. … So have Stewart and Brook been doing nothing?

SEAN: No, they’ve dated. But Brooke has spent her nights with Liz, not Stewart.

ANNE: What about while Scout was with Liz?

SEAN: Brooke knew that Scout wasn’t opening up to Liz. She was there waiting when Liz dumped him.

ANNE: But if Liz is with you, and Mark’s come clean with her, Brooke and Stewart will get together?

SEAN: Tonight, I expect. And to free Liz’s and Brooke’s room up for that is, to be honest, part of why I’m taking Mark’s offer of the apartment here.

ANNE: It’s a good reason. … But after tonight, the four of you may be spending a lot of nights in the same room?

SEAN: Yeh. It looks like Liz may come with Brooke and Stewart attached. Liz and Brooke have become really close. Liz and Stewart clearly like each other. And the girls got the four of us together last night – dinner, _Casablanca_ , some light fooling around afterward.

ANNE: How’d that go?

SEAN: Well, I think. Brooke’s smart and pretty, Stewart’s funny and athletic, and they’re both really kind. They treat each other well. And they seem to like me.

ANNE: So what’s the problem? It sounds great.

SEAN: It could be. But it could get intense fast. Today Liz will learn about what you and Mark obviously have with Jacqueline and Ham. And tonight Brooke and Stewart will hear Jacqueline’s and Ham’s story, and probably feel part of it.

ANNE: It sounds like they are.

SEAN: But I don’t want that to screw up what Liz and I could have with you and Mark, or Jacqueline and Ham, or Bella and Will. Or to make Jacqueline and Mark feel even guiltier. So what do I need to do?

ANNE: Help Liz tell this to Mark this afternoon the way I’ll tell it to Jackie and Ham at dinner.

SEAN: How’s that?

ANNE: As a love story, not as a problem, Sean. It’s beautiful. And it won’t screw anything up. All Mark and I or Ham and Jackie will ask is not to be shut out of it, if you and Liz are in it.

SEAN: Really?

ANNE: Yes. Jackie, Ham and Mark will feel guilty. So do I – I’ve been part of this charade. But we can make it right. And you’re already helping us do that.

(MARK and LIZ emerge at the top of the spiral staircase, each carrying a coffee.)

SEAN: Thanks. … (Seeing MARK and LIZ:) Our twins are here.

(SEAN kisses ANNE’s temple, helps her stand, then stands himself. As MARK and LIZ approach, MARK hangs back, nods to the prep school kids on the other couch. ANNE walks to meet MARK. LIZ stops in front of SEAN, facing him, looking into his eyes. She looks down, takes his hand, raises her eyes to SEAN’s again, then turns, holding SEAN’s hand, to face MARK and ANNE.)

MARK (to SEAN and ANNE): Hi. Could I get you a second round of drinks?

ANNE (taking MARK’s hand, pulling him closer to SEAN and LIZ): No thanks, Mark. We’re going upstairs. A done deal, unless Liz would prefer to stay here.

(MARK arches an eyebrow at ANNE, who stares him down. LIZ looks questioningly at SEAN.)

SEAN (to LIZ, handing her the key): Mark’s rented us a love nest for the night. An efficiency apartment, upstairs, here. … (To MARK:) Thank you.

MARK: My pleasure.

LIZ: I have a great brother. … (To SEAN:) Are you OK with taking this?

SEAN: Anne can be very persuasive. Would you rather hear the rest of the story here or upstairs?

LIZ: Could you doubt?

ANNE: Tell Mark, please.

LIZ: Ah … (Caressing MARK’s cheek with her free hand.) Upstairs, Mark. Let’s trust ourselves, please. Hamilton obviously trusts us.

MARK (kissing LIZ’s hand): You can be very persuasive.

LIZ: Knowing what’s going on helps.

(ANNE begins to put on her boots.)

SEAN: We’re going outside?

ANNE: We could unlock that door in the back, but the outside stairs are more discreet.

SEAN (putting on his boots): OK.

ANNE (putting on her parka): Mark and I’ll wait for you and Liz outside, Sean. You have a debt payment to arrange.

SEAN (putting on his parka, grinning): Right.

ANNE (picking up her latte): Mark, grab the helmets, please?

(MARK picks up the helmets by their straps, follows ANNE to the spiral staircase, descends after her.)

LIZ: A debt payment?

SEAN (picking up his espresso, taking LIZ’s hand): Come with. … (Approaching the Edmund High couple at the rear table:) Liz, I’d like you to meet two juniors at my school …

 

*       *       * 


	20. Scene 16 - The steerage of my course

EXT - NEW RAWLEY, LAKESIDE PARK PICNIC AREA. DAY 5 (DAY - AFTERNOON)

 

(BELLA, in jeans, snowboots and a parka, unfastened but hood pulled up, sits on a picnic table bench, off the full length of which the snow has been knocked. It’s the lakeside bench of a lakeside table near the town boathouse; nothing is between BELLA and the lake but a few bare trees. The surface of the lake has thawed, and the paths both between the boathouse the parking lot and from the boathouse and its small inner-tube-floated dock have been shoveled. BELLA sits looking across the lake at Rawley Academy.

WILL, HAMILTON and JAKE approach from behind BELLA, along the path from the parking lot. JAKE’s backpack dangles from one of HAMILTON’s shoulders. When they’re about ten meters from BELLA, JAKE motions for WILL and HAMILTON to hush and stop, makes a snowball, throws it – overhand – high over BELLA’s head. It lands a couple of meters in front of BELLA.)

BELLA (unsurprised, neither turning nor moving): Hi guys. Come sit with me.

(Responding to BELLA’s subdued mood, WILL, HAMILTON and JAKE quietly sit down on the bench, WILL on BELLA’s left, JAKE on her right, HAMILTON to the right of JAKE. HAMILTON sets the backpack down on the table.)

BELLA: Beautiful, isn’t it?

HAMILTON: Yeh.

BELLA (still gazing at the school): And frightening. Remember how you described it your first week there, Will? “The perfect people, the perfect life … something that wasn’t meant for me.” Tell me, is it meant for you now?

WILL (pensively): I think it’s meant for anybody, even though nobody – except maybe Hamilton – really “belongs” there. We don’t get in by being perfect. We get perfected by being there. It’s humbling, but not frightening, once you get used to it.

BELLA (still staring at the school): What’s it like to lose it, Jacqueline? To be expelled from it by your lover, by an angel with a flaming sword who promises “a paradise within thee, happier far”? Have you found that?

JAKE: That and more. … (She gets up, stands in front of BELLA, takes her hands. Raising BELLA to her feet:) The point of losing paradise was to regain it, girl. … (Pushing back BELLA’s hood:) Last summer I had it around me, but not within me. … (Pulling HAMILTON up and into the hug:) Now I have it within me, but not around me. … (Pulling WILL in opposite HAMILTON:) But next year, I may have both.

BELLA: I know.

JAKE (locking foreheads with BELLA): No, you don’t. … Bella, Thursday night … the Dean already knew I was a girl. And he plans to lie to let me transfer back. We won’t let him, but he plans to pretend that he caught me and booted me for a year at the end of summer term, and that he’s punished Hamilton by making him keep on pretending to be gay and not letting me come back to visit until now.

BELLA: Oh my god … How’d he find out?

HAMILTON: Will told my parents two weeks ago.

JAKE: So well that Ham’s parents are, like, totally in love. That’s why the Dean’s doing this.

(BELLA kisses WILL intensely. Breaking off, WILL smiles, turns BELLA’s face to JAKE’s. As the two girls kiss, HAMILTON and WILL tighten the hug. Breaking off, BELLA rests her head on WILL’s shoulder, looking at JAKE. WILL nuzzles BELLA’s hair.)

BELLA (purring): If life were safe, there couldn’t be any miracles, could there?

JAKE: Nope. And if we never got things better than we know how to want, then … ?

BELLA: How could we ever grow better than we are?

JAKE (grinning softly): Yeh.

(WILL and HAMILTON exchange smiles.)

JAKE: Now tell us what’s troubling you.

BELLA: My troubles … have just shrunk several sizes. I was trying to decide … something difficult. Now, I hope, I just need a roommate. Jacqueline, would you room with me next year?

JAKE (to HAMILTON): Uh … don’t Rawley students have to live on campus?

HAMILTON: With a few exceptions … like faculty kids.

BELLA: I know. … (She shifts her eyes back to WILL’s, takes an arm from around HAMILTON, caresses JAKE’s face.) … Dean Fleming has offered me a full scholarship to Rawley Girls’. If I can pass the entrance exam.

JAKE: Bella, that’s wonderful!

(WILL, JAKE and BELLA look briefly at HAMILTON, whose face betrays nothing.)

WILL (amazed, to BELLA): How?

BELLA: I’m not sure. Ryder, of all people, brought me the letter – that’s why I couldn’t join you at the diner. So, Jacqueline … would you and Anne room with me?

JAKE: You know Anne’s agreed to try to transfer with me?

BELLA (smiling, caressing JAKE’s head): Did you ever doubt? She told Will and me yesterday.

JAKE: I’d love to room with you, girl. I’m sure Anne would, too. And the girls’ school has beautiful quad suites. Corner turrets, windows all round. I was in one Thursday evening.

BELLA: Uh … why a quad?

JAKE: Because we’d also like to room with Lena. She suggested it, Thursday evening.

BELLA: I’m glad. I was really looking forward to meeting her today at lunch. But I would have been late and … I needed to be alone. … (To HAMILTON:) May I have another chance soon?

HAMILTON (nuzzling BELLA): Today. … (To JAKE:) But you can’t still be thinking of rooming with Lena.

BELLA: Why not?

HAMILTON: She wants to take up with Ryder.

JAKE (to BELLA): The Dean’s trying to salvage Ryder. Lena’s trying to help. … (To HAMILTON:) I’d like to try to help, too, Hamilton.

HAMILTON: I do not want Ryder around you.

BELLA: His wasn’t a bad shoulder to cry on today, Ham.

WILL: And some say even the devil may be saved. But this is not an argument we need to have right now. Rooms for fall term won’t be assigned till spring term, will they, Ham?

HAMILTON: No.

WILL: So can’t you let Jacqueline, Anne and Bella agree to room together if they’re all admitted, and with Lena, too, if she’s not attached to Ryder, or if he seems less foul by then?

HAMILTON (grudgingly): Alright.

JAKE: Can second-years get any of those corner turret quads, Hamilton?

HAMILTON: Yes. Some are reserved for each class except first-years, although the fourth-years get the top floor ones. But there are lovely triples at the girl’s school, too – all the half-turrets.

WILL (to BELLA, ignoring HAMILTON’s innuendo): So you’ll take the scholarship?

BELLA (disengaging a bit): Unless I can’t. Hamilton, where does it come from?

HAMILTON: Dad said it came from an anonymous donor – I don’t know who. The donor left it up to Dad to decide what kind of scholarship it would be. We didn’t have a town scholarship for the girls’ school. After the Edmund High parents took our students for Thanksgiving dinner, the advantages of having one came to mind.

BELLA: And how was I chosen to get it?

HAMILTON: Dad phoned the high school and middle school principals yesterday to ask them to suggest candidates. You were mentioned by both of them. For being kind and helpful, not just smart and hard-working.

BELLA: The schools were closed yesterday, Ham.

HAMILTON: Dad was eager to repay the town’s generosity. So he phoned them at home. Principals don’t need their office records to tell you which students they’re most impressed with.

BELLA: And how do you know all this?

HAMILTON: Dad knew I knew you, so he phoned me yesterday afternoon to ask about you.

JAKE: So that’s why you abandoned me at the restaurant in Cambridge.

HAMILTON: Not exactly abandoned. Cute waiter, slow shift. How often do you get to flirt with a Harvard student?

JAKE (grabbing HAMILTON’s chin): Not nearly so often as I might in future.

WILL: Think you two lovebirds might fly back to Bella’s question?

HAMILTON: Sorry, Bella. … I told Dad I’m too close to you to have an objective opinion. He wanted my opinion anyhow. But I did little more than echo what your principals had already said.

BELLA: Hamilton, all that I can accept, and I thank you. But could the Calhouns be the donor?

HAMILTON: Can’t exclude the possibility. But whoever it was asked and took my dad’s advice about what it should be used for. The donor didn’t even suggest it be given to a girl from New Rawley.

JAKE: Satisfied?

BELLA: No. My gut still tells me this is Scout’s doing. … (Eyeing HAMILTON:) Perhaps with help from a friend. He’s compulsively kind, and good at masking it – isn’t he, Hamilton?

HAMILTON: Yes, he is. Scout’s the best we’ve got. So assuming your gut is right, I suggest you trust his judgment.

BELLA: I do. And yours. That’s a lot to live up to.

JAKE: Tell me about it.

BELLA (returning her eyes to WILL’s): So yes, I’ll accept.

(WILL lifts BELLA’s chin, not quite to kiss her, but to ask if she’d like to be kissed.)

BELLA (kissing WILL lightly): Yours, but not yet.

(WILL nods acceptance. BELLA disengages from the group, walks a couple of paces toward the lake, looks out over it. WILL disengages from JAKE, but remains beside her.)

BELLA: There’s something else I came here to think about. … Did Grace tell you guys I’d be here?

JAKE: Yep.

BELLA: I asked her to stay at the gas station and do that. … (Turning to face the others, to JAKE:) How'd my baby sister handle seeing you in girl clothes?

JAKE: Cool as a cucumber. Just stared at me for a moment, smiled, and said "Mercutio - I should have known.”  Then hugged us, gave Hamilton a "Well done" and me a "Welcome back."

WILL (puzzled): "Mercutio"?

JAKE: Long story. … (Looking at BELLA:) One Will should hear tonight. 

HAMILTON: Grace is prettier every time I see her. And she was reading _A Tale of Two Cities_.

BELLA: Grace is reading that because Scout has read it. And Scout is reading _Little Women_ because Grace recommended it to him. … I think they’re falling for each other. At Thanksgiving dinner …

HAMILTON: We know. Scout told Mark and me later that evening what Grace had done. And you’re right, he’s smitten, although he won’t quite admit it to himself.

JAKE: And Anne and Mark told us about your discussion of _Casablanca_ last night. So when Grace asked for the story behind my makeover a few minutes ago, we suggested that she go over to the diner and hear it from Scout.

BELLA: Scout is telling Grace your story … now?

JAKE: Seems likely. She’d gotten Charlie to cover the pumps for her, and was crossing the street as we left.

BELLA: That could seal the deal.

HAMILTON: We hope so.

BELLA (rejoining the others, hugging HAMILTON): Oh god, thank you. … It’ll be so hard for Scout, but …

HAMILTON (kissing BELLA’s head): We’ll help him.

BELLA: It could work. Scout’s such an emotional saviour. And Grace was hurt, when our mom ran off, even worse than I was. But Scout also sees Grace’s strengths.

HAMILTON: We know. But until today at lunch, Scout was conflicted. For weeks, he’d kind of had his heart set on Lena – as much as he can without being entirely over you yet – partly because Jacqueline and I had hurt Lena.

BELLA (looking reproachfully at WILL): I didn’t know that.

WILL: Bella … you’re not entirely over Scout yet, either. At least you weren’t before Thanksgiving. And nobody’s wanted to hurt you.

HAMILTON: But Lena told Scout at lunch today that although she’ll take him for a while, she wants to be there for Ryder when he’s ready. I think she’s nuts, but Scout’s free for Grace.

JAKE: When she’s old enough.

WILL: Scout could help Grace over losing you to me, and to Rawley, Bella.

JAKE: And given how close you and Scout are, Will, no one could help Grace over that better than Scout. It’s perfect.

WILL: Except that Scout is scared. He knows it won’t be easy.

BELLA: Grace won’t be too young forever.

WILL: So we wait?

BELLA (placing her hands on WILL’s chest): Yes, we wait. For that, and for me not to be afraid to lose the one thing I’m afraid of losing now.

WILL: Your scholarship.

BELLA (laughing): Ham, is this really the brightest townie boy your dad could find? … No, not the scholarship, Will. You. I’m afraid of losing you.

WILL: Bella, I’m not your mom. I’ll always …

BELLA (disengaging from WILL): Stop. I know, Will. I need courage, not assurances.

JAKE: Bella … To be in love is to be scared. But if it’s true, you can’t lose it. Even if you lose him. It’s something you can take to the grave.

BELLA: Jacqueline, how can you be so sure?

JAKE: When I left in August, I didn’t know whether Hamilton and I would stay together. I knew he’d try, I knew he’d come to New York … but … (JAKE falters, looking at HAMILTON.)

HAMILTON (kissing JAKE gently:) I’m not going anywhere.

JAKE: I know. … (To BELLA:) I thought maybe it was past. For the three days between my leaving and Hamilton’s coming to New York, I tried just to look at it backwards, not forwards. But I knew I’d been truly loved. I knew I’d always have that. Even when it’s past, it’s not over, Bella.

BELLA (caressing JAKE’s face): I get it.

HAMILTON: And Jacqueline and I will help. So will Anne and Mark. Maybe Liz and Sean, and Grace and Scout, too.

BELLA: Ham, I know.

WILL: So what are you afraid of?

BELLA (looking into WILL’s eyes): Of healing, of growing. Of how much I’ll change when I take you … and this scholarship … and our friends. I won’t be the same person, Will. You’ll get me over what my mom’s done. And the girl you’ve loved all your life, the girl you gave your red-hots to, will be gone.

WILL: Bella, that’s what I want. That’s what we all want. And it’s not just you who’s growing. We all are. Helping each other do that is what love’s all about. You know that.

BELLA: But I don’t know how we’ll do it.

WILL: Neither do I. Nobody ever does.

JAKE: Bella, in New York, after I left Rawley, I knew I didn’t need Hamilton anymore the way I had when he saved me … because he _had_ saved me. And I knew he’ll always need to be needed, need to help people who’ve been hurt, the way he’d helped me. I knew the only way I could keep him was to help him do that better than he could with anyone else.

BELLA: Of course Hamilton can do that better with you. With you, he has the fairy tale, the proof that true love is possible. If you and he break up, he’ll lose it, ‘cause true love’s supposed to last. But Will and I don’t have anything like that.

JAKE: A guy who’s waited ten years for you to wake up? You don’t think that’s inspiring? If you didn’t think Hamilton and I were inspired in New York, if you didn’t think Hamilton was inspired at the drive-in, if you don’t think Mark and Anne have been inspired, then take Will and let us show you, for real, how inspired we are.

BELLA: Sorry, I didn’t mean …

JAKE: Then show Will it inspires you, too. And what Hamilton and I have now is not what we had last summer. That was about healing me. It couldn’t last. We’ve had to rebuild our relationship – as partners.

WILL: Deliberately?

JAKE: Yes. In New York. We started over. We talked honestly for the first time. About my problems, about how he’d dealt with them, and about the future.

WILL (to HAMILTON): Words.

JAKE: Yeh. The witty, articulate guy I’d fallen for before I clammed him up by kissing him on the rooftop came back to me. But he didn’t state the problem, much less suggest a solution. I had to do that.

HAMILTON (kissing JAKE’s forehead): I knew you would.

WILL: When did you?

JAKE: The day I accepted admission to Grottlesex. Hamilton had spent two weeks dealing with my problems. I wanted to do something for him for a change. He already knew the Met, the MoMA, the Guggenheim and the International Center for Photography, so I took him to the _Neue Gallerie_ …

BELLA: What’s that?

HAMILTON: Great little museum of modern Austrian and German art and photography on the Upper East Side, totally off my radar. Neat café, too – a slice of 1920’s Vienna. We had dinner there. And walking back to her mom’s house through the park, Jacqueline showed me that she really was well.

BELLA: How?

JAKE: I told Hamilton I wanted to try to help him help other people the way he’d helped me.

WILL (looking at HAMILTON): And he said?

JAKE: Nothing. He kissed me, walked me home and made love to me for the first time.

HAMILTON (to WILL): Words have their limits.

JAKE: Bella, when you showed up a few days later, feeling guilty about having been blind to Will, and about having hurt Sean and Scout and Caroline, and worried about your family and Will's scholarship … pulling you in with us, and promising to help you and Will, was our first chance to do what we knew we needed to do to stay together. You helped us as much as we helped you.

BELLA: Jackie …

JAKE: There’ll always be people who need help – like you have, like I did last summer. If you and Will help them, they’ll help you stay together. You don’t have to be needy yourself. … And Bella – Hamilton and I still need you and Will. We always will. And we’ll always help you. You understand?

(BELLA bites her lip, nods.)

JAKE: Then you’re out of horse-crap excuses to keep dawdling. You and Will have already waited, like, forever. You’re not six years old anymore. You’re sixteen. Take him.

BELLA (exasperated): Where? I live with Grace, Will rooms with Scout. We don’t want to go at it under either of their noses while they’re waiting for each other. Worse, Will and I together would be more tempted to jump Scout than either of us is alone – and that would be disastrous.

HAMILTON: Bella, see those two cottages across the lake, on either flank of the girls’ school?

WILL: The guest quarters.

HAMILTON: Yes. The farther one is occupied by some guest of my dad’s this evening, but he’s given Jacqueline and me the nearer one for the night. … (He pulls a key on a ring out of his left trouser pocket, dangles it from a finger, grins.) … I’m told it’s stocked with firewood and kindling, a bottle of Montrachet, a wheel of brie, a loaf of fresh home-baked bread, and some CDs.

WILL: You’re kidding.

HAMILTON: Nope. My dad’s idea. And he didn’t ask me, he told me. Officially, the parentals want some privacy. Unofficially, they know tonight could get a little wild.  So Jacqueline and I are banished to the guest cottage. It’s cozy, and it’s warm.

JAKE: Join us?

(WILL and BELLA look at each other, mouths slightly open, eyes questioning.)

WILL: Thanks. … That sounds great, but it’s a one-time thing. Doesn’t really solve a discretion problem that would last for months, does it?

HAMILTON: Oh ye of little faith!

(HAMILTON pulls a ring of two keys, one identical to the one in his left hand, out of his right trouser pocket, and dangles the two key-rings, one from each hand. WILL, BELLA and JAKE break out laughing.)

HAMILTON: At least one of the cottages is often unoccupied, and I know when. Just bring a sleeping bag.

JAKE (recovering): And you guys are always welcome with Hamilton and me at Grottlesex. Take the bus with him. And you know what Mark and Anne would say if they were here. “Where?” is a really crappy reason not to do this.

HAMILTON: Truly. Will, we can always find a place for you and Bella, or for Scout. And Scout does not want to be the reason for your staying apart – that would really hurt him.

WILL: We know.

JAKE: So …?

(WILL and BELLA look at each other, blushing. BELLA puts an arm around WILL, looks at HAMILTON, nods her head, nestles into WILL. WILL kisses her head, holds her close. HAMILTON and JAKE exchange relieved looks and relax into each other.)

HAMILTON: Great. … But first, I’ve arranged for three prospective transfer students to get a tour of the girls’ school from a few of its residents. Mark and Anne will be there too. Then at dinner, Jacqueline and I will scandalize the campus. … (To JAKE:) Shall we sled to the dining hall for our coming-out party?

JAKE (grinning): Could be fun.

HAMILTON: Anne, Jacqueline and I will be Mark’s guests, with Lena. Bring Bella, too, Will?

WILL (exchanging grins with BELLA): Definitely.

BELLA: That I wouldn’t want to miss.

HAMILTON (to WILL, tossing him one key-ring, pocketing the other): After dinner, Jacqueline and I will sled off to town for a few hours. We’ll join you later tonight, OK?

WILL (pocketing the key-ring): Thanks, Ham.

HAMILTON: So let’s head for the girls’ school.

WILL: Walk around the lake?

JAKE: Can’t fly, too cold to swim.

WILL: Hamilton’s not the only one with access. … (He pulls a key ring out of his pocket, goes to the boathouse door – a high double-door – unlocks it, holds it the first half open.) … How about we row across the lake? That’ll give the girls more time for their tour.

HAMILTON: Good idea. You and I can row back and walk around.

WILL: No, let’s stash a town boat in the school boathouse overnight. It won’t be missed. Bella and I’ll bring it back tomorrow morning. We’ll want to spend some time with our parents … and Grace.

HAMILTON (smiling): Yeh, you will. … How’d you get keys to this place?

BELLA: Half the guys at Edmund have them. For purposes other than boating.

WILL (opening the second half of the door): But we romantics use it for both.

HAMILTON: Come on, let’s get a rowboat into the water.

(WILL and HAMILTON go inside, off-camera; BELLA and JAKE remain at the door.)

BELLA: Hamilton, your dad wants me to start at Rawley after Christmas break, after finishing this semester at Edmund.

WILL (from inside): Don’t worry, I can bring you up to speed on your winter-term courses over Christmas break.

JAKE (in the doorway, supervising gratuitously): Hands on!

BELLA: I know, Will. Thank you. But Ham, if I do that, could I keep on living in town for the rest of this school year – through your spring term?

HAMILTON (from inside): I told Dad I thought you’d want to do that, and the answer is yes. There aren’t any vacant rooms at the girls’ school now anyhow, and we don’t expect any next term.

JAKE: Up in two! One, two!

HAMILTON: But if you change your mind, we can put you up with a faculty family.

JAKE: To shoulders … ready, up!

BELLA: Thanks, Ham.

WILL (from inside, straining to lift the boat): You got it?

JAKE: Over heads … ready, up!

HAMILTON (also straining): Yeh.

JAKE (moving away from the doorway): Heads up!

(WILL and HAMILTON emerge from the boathouse carrying a rowboat over their heads.)

WILL (grunting, to BELLA): Grab a pair of oars, will you?

BELLA (going inside the boathouse): Sure. One other question. More of a suggestion, really.

HAMILTON: What?

BELLA (from inside): I think a town scholarship kid should try to take one course at Edmund. If not every term, then at least every other term. You too, Will.

WILL: Not necessarily the best thing for our college admission prospects.

BELLA (re-emerging with two oars): It’s the best thing for being liaisons between the school and the town. That’s our job, why don’t we try to do it well? We both just signed up for some compromises about where we go to college anyhow, didn’t we?

WILL (approaching the small town dock): Yeh, but …

JAKE (shutting the boathouse doors, then picking up the backpack): You’ll get into Harvard anyhow, Krudski. … Down to waist! … Finn and the Dean love your whining ass. … And down!

(WILL and HAMILTON set the boat down in the water by the dock, bow pointing away from the shore. BELLA and JAKE join them.)

HAMILTON (holding the boat close to the dock): Bella, set the oars down here next to me, please. You and Will sit in the stern.

(BELLA sets down the oars and climbs into the boat. WILL helps her in, then follows.)

HAMILTON: Jake, wanna show us whether coxswains can row?

JAKE: If you two crab catchers can do it, anybody can.

HAMILTON: Get in, baby.

(JAKE tosses the backpack into the boat’s bow, climbs in, takes the rower’s seat, facing the stern. HAMILTON hands JAKE an oar. JAKE puts it into the oarlock away from the dock.)

HAMILTON: So far, so good. We’re off. … (He climbs in, seats himself in the bow, uses the remaining oar to push the boat out from the dock. Setting the oar into the dockside oarlock:) All yours, Jake.

(The boat, parallel with the picnic area dock, is about ninety degrees off the course they need to take the reach the school boathouse dock. JAKE tackles with limited success the unfamiliar problem of turning the boat. WILL and HAMILTON exchange grins.)

HAMILTON (opening JAKE’s backpack and pulling out a crumpled gift bag): Bella, this is from Jacqueline and me. With our thanks for everything you’ve done for us. I asked Jacqueline to let me choose it. She hasn’t seen it yet. But as I told her, it’s a survival guide. … (To JAKE:) Pass it to Bella, please?

(JAKE struggles to hold both oars while taking the bag from HAMILTON and passing it to BELLA, then continues to try to turn the boat toward the school boathouse, beginning to get the hang of it.)

BELLA (pulling a book out of the bag): [_The Official Preppy Handbook_](http://vk.com/doc33913333_92709250?hash=fa2d4a5bc3773fdf4a&dl=4db4b66d65fa526659)?

JAKE (cracking up): Hammy, you didn’t!

WILL (reading the inscription on the frontispiece, as BELLA shows it to him): “For Bella, with thanks for befriending two strangers from this strange land. Welcome.”

JAKE (having finally turned the boat): That book shows just how strange it is. A classic.

HAMILTON: Keep rowin’, baby. We gotta get across before the lake freezes over.

JAKE (beginning to row a wobbly course across the lake): Funny, Fleming.

HAMILTON: But to savor the strangeness first-hand, Bella, you’ll need to pass the entrance exam. Think you could coach this girl on her Shakespeare, Will?

WILL: Uh … yeh. Anything in particular?

HAMILTON: Why don’t you start with _Romeo and Juliet_ , [first act, last scene](http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Rom/Q2/scene/1.5)? There’s a sonnet in there, about how to keep faith from turning to despair, isn’t there, Jacqueline?

(BELLA and JAKE exchange glances. BELLA smiles softly, nods slightly, casts her eyes downward.)

JAKE (grinning): There is. You know it, Will?

WILL (taking Bella’s hand in his): If He, that hath the steerage of my course, direct my sail.

HAMILTON: Then save faith by the book.

(Pan out on the boat wobbling across the lake.)

WILL (to BELLA): “If I profane with my unworthiest hand  
                         This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:  
                         My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand  
                         To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.”

BELLA: “Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much … “

 

*       *       * 


	21. Scene 17 – Joining the story

INT – NEW RAWLEY, GENERAL STORE CAFÉ, LOFT APARTMENT – DAY 5 (DAY - LATE AFTERNOON)

 

(A queen-sized bed, a small kitchen and dining area, two loveseats on the opposite side of a low table, all under a sloping garret roof.

SEAN and LIZ are in bed, making out – covered below the waist, of course. Their clothing is draped over a love seat. An open bottle of champagne, two glasses and a house phone rest on a night stand beside the bed. A loaf of bread, slabs of two different cheeses, a knife and a bunch of grapes rest on a cutting board on the dinette table, next to two empty but slightly soiled plates. Two more plates and two glasses, washed, rest in a drying rack next to the sink.

A mobile phone, on the table between the loveseats, rings. SEAN starts to get it.)

LIZ (pulling SEAN back down to her): We’re busy.

SEAN (grinning): Yeh, we are.

(SEAN and LIZ resume making out. A few seconds after the mobile phone stops ringing, another mobile phone with a different ring tone starts to ring, from somewhere inside the clothing on the loveseat.)

SEAN: Yours.

LIZ: Uh -huh.

SEAN: It’s someone who knows we’re together.

LIZ: We’re still busy.

(SEAN and LIZ again resume making out. Soon after LIZ’s mobile stops ringing, the house phone rings.)

SEAN: And it’s someone who knows where we are.

LIZ (sighing): Mark.

SEAN: Or Anne. Maybe Hamilton.

LIZ: Get it.

SEAN (reaching for the phone): Hello? … Hi, guy. … You hope right. … Sure, but why’d you call me first? … You’re hilarious. Hold on. … (Handing the phone to LIZ, covering the mouthpiece:) Your comedian brother, for you. Hopes he’s interrupting something, says he thought you might let me be on top the first time or two.

LIZ (into the phone): This had better be good, dweeb. … (She pulls SEAN’s head down to a breast.) … Really? They did it? How? … (She props herself up on an elbow, her engagement with SEAN changing from erotic to affectionate.) … Wow. The Calhouns, obviously. … Come on, it’s transparent. … Alright, alright, I understand. … Yes. … Yes, I’ve got it. You’re sure she doesn’t want to tell him herself? … I am now. … OK, thanks. Hold on.

SEAN: What’s happening?

LIZ: Mark’s at the girls’ school, with Ham and Will. Bella’s finally taking Will.

SEAN: Thank god. Jacqueline and Hamilton?

LIZ: And Mark and Anne, and you, boy. Will and Bella wanted you to hear it from me, with their thanks. … (She kisses SEAN. Breaking off:) And Bella’s been offered a scholarship to Rawley. She’s taking it. She’s touring the girls’ school with Jacqueline and Anne.

SEAN: Oh … I’ll miss her.

LIZ: Only at school. Will and Bella send us their best wishes, with an invitation to double with them when we’re ready.

(SEAN looks into LIZ’s eyes.)

LIZ: Sean, your two closest friends want us with them. They’re kind, they’re gentle, and you need to trust them. May I accept for next weekend?

(SEAN nods. LIZ lies back down, pulling SEAN’s head to her shoulder, caressing it as he nuzzles her neck.)

LIZ (into the phone again): Our best to Will and Bella, too. And please tell them we’d like that, maybe next weekend. … Good. … Yes, I met her Thanksgiving night, why? … You’re kidding. … That’s insane, Scout can’t wait that long. … lf he’ll let us. …

SEAN (propping himself up on an elbow): Tell me.

LIZ (into the phone): Hold on, Mark. ... (To SEAN): They think Scout’s falling for Bella’s little sister.

SEAN: Grace?

LIZ: Yeh.

SEAN (after a pause, smiling): It’s a good fit.

LIZ: She’s fourteen.

SEAN: We’ll talk.

LIZ: OK … (Into the phone:) Still there? … Whatever happened to Lena? … Has she gone nuts? Ryder’s scum. … Caught doing what? … The Dean’s out of his mind. … Whatever, I wish her luck, she’ll need it.

SEAN: What’s wrong?

LIZ (into the phone): Hold on again, Mark. … (To SEAN:) Nothing threatening. I’ll tell you later, OK?

(SEAN props himself up on an elbow, kisses LIZ’s forehead.)

LIZ (into the phone): So let’s cut to the chase. Why’d you call?… Sure, what are they? … Oh god. … No, I’d be delighted, it’s just that the reason’s so absurd. As if Ham’s giving me Sean, and her giving you Anne, weren’t more than apology enough. … Alright, I understand. You and Anne will come, too? … Why not? … Good point. … Yeh, you may be right, but … You promise? … Let me talk with Sean. … (Covering the mouthpiece, to SEAN:) Jacqueline and Ham want to apologize to me, about Mark.

SEAN: When?

LIZ: This evening. Can they come by after dinner?

SEAN: Of course. But without Mark and Anne?

LIZ: Yes. Mark says he and Anne want us to have our own relationship with Ham and Jackie. He promises he and Anne will join us with them any time we want after we have that.

SEAN: Let me talk with him.

(LIZ hands SEAN the phone.)

SEAN: Mark? … Yeh. Look, Liz and I’d love to see them. But we’d like you with us, please. … Then we’ll meet them at the diner. … That’s exactly why. ... Of course we do. And we want to thank them, for everything. But not without you and Anne. … That’s absurd. The four of you are in love. Let me talk with Ham, please.

LIZ: Sean, be careful.

SEAN (to LIZ): I will. … (Into the phone:) Hi, guy. … Very, thanks. … Ham, my pleasure. Let’s save all that for this evening. … Me too. But if Anne and Mark aren’t coming with you, shouldn’t we meet someplace where nothing can happen that might hurt them? … Oh. OK. ... What? ... You’re kidding. … Alright, let me tell Liz.

LIZ: What?

SEAN (not covering the mouthpiece): Ham says it's partly the twin thing. Mark wants Jackie and Ham to get close to you as my girlfriend, not as Mark's twin sister.

LIZ: I know. Mark just told me. Kinda makes sense.

SEAN: It does. But it's not just that. When the four of them first got together, Columbus Day weekend, Anne and Mark warned Jackie and Ham that a lot of couples would want to be close to them - and that Anne and Mark would never be part of that, the first time. 

(LIZ bites her lip. SEAN rolls her on top of him. She burrows into SEAN’s neck.)

SEAN (into the phone, while caressing LIZ’s head): We’ll see you here after dinner, then. And we’ll jump Mark’s hurdle. … Don’t worry about that. … Trust me. … Really? … For sure. … Sounds great, thanks.

LIZ: What sounds great?

SEAN: A night together for all eight of us – Bella and Will, too – after the Flemings’ dinner for my family, two weeks from tonight? We’re all invited to the dinner, along with my sister and her boyfriend and two friends of theirs. And Ham’s reserved a suite at the Inn.

LIZ: God, he’s perfect. … (Into the phone:) We’re on for the dinner, Fleming. As for the afterparty, you can try this evening to persuade me that that’s worth losing sleep for.

SEAN (into the phone, while rolling his eyes at LIZ): Told you not to worry about that. Good luck at dinner. … Stop worrying. Especially about the parents. I told mine at breakfast, they turned to mush and went back to bed. … Yes. I expect that’s why your dinner’s waiting on Jacqueline’s next weekend here. My folks want to meet her. Let’s give this back to Mark and Liz.

(SEAN hands the phone to LIZ.)

LIZ: Mark? … Yes, I understand. … I’ll deal with it. … I’ll be gentle when she stops apologizing. … I will remember, but if you want a say in it, be there. Otherwise, bug out. … Better. So what’s the other favor? … Sure, our pleasure. You’re right, Scout shouldn’t be there. … Don’t worry, we’ll find them. … I’ll ask. … (To SEAN:) Would you like to talk with Will?

(SEAN shakes his head.)

LIZ (into the phone): Nope. … He’ll be fine. Bella’s a hard act to follow, but I think I’m up to it. … Yes, all that and more. … That’ll cost you dinner and a movie, twin brother. … You too. Love to Anne.

(LIZ hangs up the phone, picks up a champagne glass, takes a sip.)

SEAN: What’s up?

LIZ (kissing SEAN’s forehead, offering him a drink): You and I, boy, get to become part of the story.

SEAN (drinking): How?

LIZ (setting the glass back down): We’re taking Scout and Grace to dinner. … Come on, get up. Let’s shower and get dressed.

 

*       *       *


	22. Scene 18 - Canossa

EXT - THE FLEMINGS’ HOUSE. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (SUNSET).

 

(The blinds on the windows on the ground floor on the front side of the house are lowered and closed. RYDER, still in black jacket, white turtleneck, white dress shirt, black slacks, white-and-black striped scarf, no parka, walks up the driveway and walkway to the bottom of the front porch steps. He pulls a mobile phone out of his pocket, dials a number, waits.)

RYDER: I’m here, sir.

(After a brief response, RYDER closes and re-pockets the phone. A few seconds later, the DEAN comes out, wearing a greatcoat, the three golden retrievers with him. He joins RYDER at the foot of the steps. )

RYDER: Thank you for receiving me, Dean Fleming.

DEAN: You were wise to phone ahead to my cell, Ryder. You might have found any contact with my wife extraordinarily unpleasant this afternoon.

RYDER: Then I’m half too late. But Dr. Fleming, you needn’t tell Hamilton. That’s … all that can still be said … of what I came to say.

DEAN: Why should I trust you, Ryder?

RYDER: To give you reason to do that will take time, sir.

DEAN: Yes, it will.

RYDER: I'm asking you not to tell Hamilton even though you can't trust me.

DEAN: That's asking a lot.

RYDER: It is - but I need not to hurt your son. I learned today that things I thought impossible are possible. He’s done them. And I’m thankful - because what I need to do seems impossible.

DEAN: It’s not.

RYDER: What Hamilton's done - it's what you're thankful for, too, isn't it? 

DEAN: It is.

RYDER: And it's why I'm still here, isn't it? Because once we know it's not just a fairy-tale, we can't bear not to try to be like that. So you're trying to save a messed-up kid, just like your son …

DEAN: I don't plan to kiss you, Ryder. 

RYDER: Too late, sir. Jacqueline already did that by telling me what Hamilton's done for her. And now, I don't just want not to be turfed out. I need to be here. 

DEAN: No one's asking you to leave.

RYDER: Dr. Fleming, that's what I'll have to do if I can't stop you from hurting Hamilton because of me.  Even if you tell him without mentioning me, I can't stay here. I won't be able to face you or Mrs. Fleming or Hamilton or Jacqueline … or myself. … But it's not just about me, sir. 

DEAN: What is it about?

RYDER: All of us. Two kids living a fairy tale that changes everyone it touches are about to bring this whole school into it. And to try to keep on living it while sharing it with everyone. That'll be hard. They need for us not to make it even harder. And what I'm asking you to trust isn't me.

DEAN: What is it?

RYDER: What you're feeling yourself. What's made you forgive Jacqueline, and your son, and your wife, and Finn, and me. I'm asking you to trust that it can make even an utter rotter who's tried to hurt Jacqueline and Hamilton need not to hurt them now.

DEAN: It has a name, Ryder.

RYDER: I'm asking you to trust love.

DEAN: And?

RYDER: Dr. Fleming … I have no right.

DEAN: We can all do it better, Ryder. But to feel it - that we don't have to earn.

RYDER: Alright - I love your son … and …

DEAN (arching an eyebrow): You're asking for my blessing?

RYDER (smiling feebly): I'm glad Jacqueline has it. 

DEAN: Then I’ll honor your request.

RYDER: Thank you, sir.

DEAN: Good night, Ryder. (He turns, walks up the steps.)

RYDER: Dean Fleming?

DEAN (turning to face RYDER as he reaches the porch): What, Ryder?

RYDER: I can’t be much good as your … personal assistant … if Mrs. Fleming hates the sight of me, can I?

DEAN: It does diminish your usefulness.

RYDER: Then, sir, I have another request.

DEAN: What?

RYDER: Please tell Mrs. Fleming for me that I’m here. And that I’ll stay here until she comes out. To be forgiven would do, but to be slapped might be even better. Either way, I need to apologize.

DEAN: Henry the Fourth waited three days at Canossa, Forrest.

RYDER: The Emperor wasn’t there for a slapping, sir.

DEAN: I’ll see what I can do.

(The DEAN goes inside, shutting the door behind him. The dogs remain outside with RYDER, nuzzling him. He crouches down and hugs them. )

 

  
*       *       * 


	23. Scene 19 – All of us

EXT - RAWLEY GIRLS’, REAR VERANDA. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (DUSK).

 

The well-shoveled veranda is a long porch, running the length of the central section of the girls’ school; its green awning is retracted. It overlooks a semi-circular rear lawn some three meters below, and offers a view both of the inlet of the lake separating the boys’ school from the girls’ school, and, in the distance, of the front of the boys’ school.

A short flight of stone steps leads to a large landing about a meter below the veranda; from each side of the landing, a longer curved flight of well-worn stone steps leads down to the lawn. At the front of the veranda, the landing and the steps is a thigh-high wall. Behind the veranda is a row of large leaded windows giving onto a wide interior corridor; in the middle of the windows is a large double door with glass panels. Electric lamp-lights mounted on the exterior wall between the windows are already lit.

On the landing, a large snow fort has been built, partly atop the wall, dominating the lawn below; its castle-like crenelations mimic the false-gothic architecture of the main girls’ school building. The veranda is covered by a row of half a dozen large, round black wrought-iron tables, around each of which six matching chairs are set. On a table near the doors is a tray bearing two large pitchers of hot chocolate, one empty. Seven mugs stand around the table, one on the tray; a seventh chair has been moved to that table from an adjacent table.

TOM Philips, in a windbreaker, and MATT Townsend, in an open parka, both inside the snow fort, are engaged in a snowball fight with three first-years on the lawn below: WILL, still in his down vest, HAMILTON, still in his blue denim jacket, and MARK, still in his down parka, now open. WILL, HAMILTON and MARK stand on a broad shoveled walkway that leads at a diagonal angle to the steps. FRED Newhouse and STEVE Appleton, in open parkas, pack snowballs at the bottom of the steps and carry them up to the third-years in the snow fort. Farther down the lawn, two groups of students, boys and girls, are putting the finishing touches on snow sculptures. Several completed snow sculptures, including one traditional three-ball snowman, are scattered around the lawn.

A few girls watch from windows of the corridor or of dorm rooms.)

STEVE (carrying an armful of snowballs up the steps to the fort): We averaged only about eight kilometers a day, but that’s because we kept being shown around and taken in. When you walk, you just meet so many more people.

FRED (packing snowballs at the foot of the stairs): And Alice had a few surprises up her sleeve. Guess how we spent the fourth of July.

MARK (lobbing a high, easily dodged arc shot into the fort): Some expat Yank’s party?

FRED: At Henley-on-Thames. Took in two days of the regatta.  Alice has a cousin who lives nearby.

HAMILTON (packing snowballs): Wish I could have been there.

(TOM darts out of the fort, throws two snowballs, hits HAMILTON with one, dodges WILL’s covering fire, quickly retreats back into the fort.)

STEVE (delivering his snowballs to TOM in the fort): So go with your girls some summer.

HAMILTON (waiting, snowballs in hand): How about we talk about that over some hot chocolate? We’re getting clobbered down here. Haven’t Will and I atoned for Wednesday yet?

TOM (inside the fort): Wednesday’s not the issue, Fleming. Your sin is being first-years.

MATT: And Johnson’s just as guilty. (He darts out from the side of the fort, throws two balls in quick succession, hitting MARK. Dodging HAMILTON’s response, he retreats into the fort.)

WILL (packing): I don’t suppose we could use the fort a while?

TOM: Most assuredly not. Forts are a privilege of seniority.

WILL (lobbing a snowball that hits only a snow fort crenelation): Great. And tell me please, Newhouse, why ammo bearers are considered non-combatants here?

FRED (carrying four snowballs up to the fort): Two reasons, Krudski. One is that Steve and I are alumni, not to be molested by students while visiting the campus.

STEVE (packing a snowball at the foot of the stairs): Something you and Ham might have remembered before you started pounding on us about abandoning our girls. But for that we forgive you.

FRED (delivering his snowballs to the fort): The other reason is that if you throw at us, Steve and I will throw back. Then it will be two third-years and two alumni against three first-years. Poor odds.

MARK (throwing another useless high arc shot): Wouldn’t you visiting alumni find sitting and drinking hot chocolate more consistent with your dignity?

FRED (returning down the stairs empty-handed): That would be most unkind to our friends Tom and Matt, who can hardly be expected to pack snowballs on a shoveled porch.

STEVE (taking snowballs up the steps): And it would be unappreciative of the lovely girls who built this snow fort, if we were to make our friends leave its shelter to engage you in a free-for-all on the lawn.

(TOM darts out from the side of the fort to throw three snowballs at WILL, who is crouching to pack. One ball hits WILL on the thigh. HAMILTON returns fire, misses. TOM scurries back inside the fort.)

FRED (packing a snowball at the bottom of the steps): So fair play and chivalry both require us to supply the fort with snowballs.

(The door from the corridor to the veranda opens. JAN holds the door open as JAKE, ANNE, DOROTHY, and NANCY emerge. BELLA and ALICE bring up the rear, ALICE whispering to BELLA. JAKE still wears her black one-shoulder dress, now covered by her open cardigan sweater. The other girls wear wool skirts, blouses and sweaters. ANNE appears to have changed at the Inn. BELLA wears JAKE’s white blouse and pleated grey wool skirt, under a sweater apparently her own.

A few more girls, following the tour group, begin to watch out the corridor window.)

TOM (to WILL, HAMILTON and MARK): But you’re rescued. The girls are here.

(FRED stands. The boys down their snowballs and converge on the girls.)

JAN (to JAKE, BELLA and ANNE): And last but not least – the veranda.

ANNE: Where you keep spare guys?

NANCY: No spares here, girl.

JAKE: Neat snow fort.

TOM: Isn’t it?

BELLA (to JAKE and ANNE): You two are _soooo_ spoiled. It’s beautiful. This whole place is.

ALICE: Yes, but we can’t say so. Bad form.

(FRED and STEVE exchange a nod and a smile with BELLA. WILL, HAMILTON and MARK approach from the top of the steps.)

JAN: Gentlemen, our prospective transfers … Bella Banks, a freshman at Edmund High and Will’s girlfriend … and Anne Crompton and Jacqueline Pratt, both first-years at Grottlesex and Mark’s and Hamilton’s girlfriends. Ladies, this is Tom Phillips, a third-year here, and Nancy’s boyfriend. And this is Matt Townsend, a third-year at Choate, Dorothy’s boyfriend.

BELLA (extending her hand): Tom, Matt, pleased to meet you both.

ANNE (extending her hand): Likewise.

TOM: Bella, Anne, Jacqueline, it’s an honor.

MATT: It is. Nancy and Dorothy told us about you and your guys Thursday night, at Tom’s home in Weston. Since we got back today, Alice and Jan have updated us.

JAKE: Tom, Matt, it’s good to meet you. But there’s something you, Nancy, Dot, Bella, Will, Hamilton and I should discuss. Soon.

TOM (putting an arm around HAMILTON): What happened Wednesday’s settled, Jacqueline.

NANCY (chagrinned but pleased): Really?

MATT (putting an arm around WILL): If there’s any fault, it’s mostly mine and Matt’s. We’re sorry we hurt you and Dot so much.

DOROTHY (hugging MATT): No, Nance and I were fools. Alice, Jan, Susan, Wendy, Will, Ham – even Jacqueline – all told us to trust you.

NANCY (hugging TOM): The snow plow ride to Weston was a lovely surprise. But that you love us shouldn’t have been.

TOM: No hard feelings on our part. Not toward you and Dot for not taking us for granted – or for being blown away by the story that blew us away Thanksgiving night. And not toward Will and Ham for giving you a little love when you felt abandoned, without letting you give up on us.

MATT: Or toward Hamilton for being bowled over by what Susan and Wendy offered to do. That bowled us over when we heard it, just an hour ago. Where are they?

NANCY: Inside, getting our coats. But how did you …

TOM: Wait. Let Jan finish the introductions.

JAN: Anne, Jacqueline … Steve Appleton and Fred Newhouse, both freshmen at William and Mary, and the guys Alice and I love.

JAKE: Oh my god …

(JAKE hugs STEVE. FRED pulls in next to STEVE, enfolding JAKE and him.)

JAKE: I’ve wanted to meet you both for so long.

ANNE: So have I. (She pulls in next to JAKE, hugging FRED.)

JAKE: Thank you, thank you both.

FRED (nuzzling ANNE): Jacqueline, Anne … our pleasure. Steve and I got here yesterday. Alice and Jan told us about you last night. We look forward to helping them tell the school tonight.

TOM: And Matt and I to helping Nance and Dot tell it.

STEVE (nuzzling JAKE): Welcome to Rawley, Anne. And welcome back, Jacqueline.

FRED: Bella, join us please.

(BELLA joins the hug.)

FRED (to BELLA): Best wishes, beautiful. Good to see you again.

STEVE: Truly. … Bella, Jacqueline, Anne - Fred and I have some news.

FRED: We’ll be here in New Rawley after Christmas break, until Alice and Jan graduate. We’re taking a semester off school.

BELLA: Oh thank god. Jan and Alice have so missed you.

JAKE: And you’ll be so good for us.

HAMILTON: They already have been. Fred and Steve helped Will and me tell Tom and Matt what happened in the _Rag_ office Wednesday.

STEVE: Dot, Nance – Fred and I thought there was no reason to make you tell it with them, since we’d already heard it all from Jan and Alice.

MATT: And they were right.

NANCY: Steve, Fred … thank you.

FRED: Don’t mention it. Will, Ham, Mark, come be with your girls. … Everyone, join us please.

(WILL, HAMILTON and MARK hug their girls, BELLA and WILL in the center, FRED and STEVE enfolding them. TOM and MATT enfold the three first-year couples opposite FRED and STEVE. JAN, ALICE, NANCY and DOROTHY pull in next to their guys.)

FRED: Better.

JAN: Much better.

(JAN and FRED kiss. So, following them, do ALICE and STEVE, NANCY and TOM, DOROTHY and MATT, ANNE and MARK, BELLA and WILL, and JAKE and HAMILTON.

Two girls watching through the corridor windows run into the common room and come back with more girls. Two other girls pull out mobile phones; one talks, one texts.)

BELLA (breaking off): So, Fred, where will you and Steve stay while you’re here? And what will you do?

FRED: We’ll stay in Dr. Hotchkiss’ garage loft apartment.

HAMILTON: Sweet.

FRED: Yes. It’s a large, lovely space, with a great landlord. Alice, Jan, Steve and I hope to see you all there often. The Dean set that up for us with a phone call yesterday afternoon, when we called on him to ask him to let us hang out here for two terms.

HAMILTON: News to me.

FRED: We asked your dad to let us tell you.

STEVE: As for what we’ll do … We’ll audit a couple of courses that we never took, work on a project we thought of this summer, and try to make ourselves useful. Haggerty can always use help. And Bella, if you’d like help with any subject you haven’t studied at Edmund or in middle school, like French, we’d be happy to tutor you, no charge.

BELLA: Thanks. I’ll definitely take you up on that.

HAMILTON: What’s the project?

STEVE: A chain ferry across the lake. There’s one at Stratford-upon-Avon. Hand-cranked – simple, cheap, durable. And the chain sinks to the bottom, so other boats aren’t blocked, and nothing shows above water. No reason we can’t do it here.

FRED: Not hard to build. We've got the specs. And having to walk or bike around the lake to get to town has got to end.

HAMILTON: No question. If my dad’s on board, I’d like to help with that.

FRED: He is. But we’ll have to organize and fund a club to run, maintain, and insure the ferry, and clear it through the town government and the school board.

MARK: Count me in, please.

WILL: Me too. Sounds like fun.

STEVE: Won't run in winter, of course. But Fred and I will be able to have cars here. We're thinking one of them might be a four-wheel-drive passenger van. We could drive it to and from town at scheduled times on weekends.  

FRED: Just until spring, when we hope to have the ferry online. And we might sell it when we leave here, if the club would like to buy it.

TOM: Recreational use of the school shuttle won't fly? 

FRED: No. But the Dean thinks he could get a club-owned van through the Board, if it only runs when the ferry's down. … (To BELLA:) Know anything about four-by-four vans?

BELLA: I lube your Quigley-converted GM shuttle van.

STEVE: And?

BELLA: It's safe, smooth-riding, easy to maintain, seats fifteen. My dad recommended it to Mr. Haggerty two years ago.

(WENDY and SUSAN, in wool skirts, boots and cloth coats, emerge from the corridor door. WENDY carries JAKE’s white parka and backpack, ANNE’s blue parka, BELLA’s parka and snow boots, and the two snowmobile helmets. SUSAN carries six girls’ cloth coats.)

FRED (to BELLA, kissing her forehead): We'll talk.

(WENDY sets the backpack and helmets down on a table, the boots next to them, pulls out a key chain, locks the door from the veranda to the corridor, gives the keys to Jan.)

JAN (to WENDY and SUSAN): Thanks, girls.

(The group breaks up, WENDY and SUSAN handing each girl’s coat to her boyfriend.)

HAMILTON: Yes. … I guess this means we won’t be going back inside.

JAN: Not unless you and Jacqueline want to deal with a gaggle of curious girls before dinner.

WENDY: We’ve reserved the veranda for a private function …

SUSAN: But, as you can see at the windows, we have an audience.

HAMILTON (to JAKE, taking her parka from WENDY): Then we should put on a show. How’d the tour go?

JAKE: Lots of shocked looks and whispers, but Jan and Alice told the few girls who intruded that introductions would wait until dinner, and no one called me out.

TOM (helping NANCY into her coat): Of course not. You were under the wings of our two mother hens.

ALICE (being helped into her coat by STEVE): And until Ham kissed you just now, there was a possibility that you might merely look like Jake Pratt.

MARK (having finished helping ANNE into her parka): Hold Jackie’s coat for you?

HAMILTON: Thanks.

(As HAMILTON hands JAKE’s parka to MARK, the others move to allow JAKE and HAMILTON to be seen, unobstructed, from the windows. JAKE looks over her shoulder at HAMILTON as he slowly removes JAKE’s cardigan sweater, revealing her one-shoulder dress, hands the sweater to ANNE, takes JAKE’s parka from MARK, slowly helps JAKE into it, then reaches around to zip it up, nuzzling JAKE’s neck. The girls in the windows increasingly talk among themselves.)

STEVE: That seems to grabbed our audience’s attention. Shall we sit? We’ve got a while before dinner, there’s plenty of hot chocolate left, and it should be easy for your friend Lena to find us here.

HAMILTON: Sure.

(HAMILTON and WILL pull two more chairs from the adjacent table to the table on which the hot chocolate is set, and hold them for WENDY and SUSAN, who sit in them.)

FRED: If couples share chairs and mugs, we can all fit round one table, and no one need run back to the kitchen.

BELLA: Sounds lovely, thanks.

(The boys sit in the other seven chairs around the table, their girls sitting on the laps – ANNE after putting JAKE’s sweater into her backpack and bringing BELLA her snow boots, which BELLA begins to put on.  The girls inside back away from the windows nearest the table.)

STEVE: So Ham, now that the girls are here … shall we discuss the problem at hand?

HAMILTON: How to seduce a whole school?

JAN (laughing, taking the empty mug and pouring hot chocolate into it): Yes, although that puts a rather different spin on it.

ALICE: Ham, after they hear your story, a lot of kids may want to get close to you and Jacqueline.

DOROTHY: You could be spread impossibly thin.

(JAN passes the mug to WENDY and begins to refill the others.)

FRED: You’re already three couples, with more hoped for.

NANCY: And right here at this table there are four more couples … and the girl halves of two more potential couples … who’d all like to be close to you.

TOM: And we’re just the tip of the iceberg.

JAKE: Yeh, we've been warned about that. By Mark and Anne Columbus Day weekend. And by Scout Thursday evening. But if we don’t share what we’ve been given, we’ll lose it.

ANNE: We can’t build a wall around this without killing it.

NANCY: Jacqueline, you and Hamilton can’t get emotionally involved with every couple or troubled kid at this school … to say nothing of Edmund, or Grottlesex.

MATT: And it won’t stop there. Kids from other schools, like the crews you row against, will want to get to know you.

WENDY: Do you have a plan to deal with that, Ham?

HAMILTON: You are the plan – all of you. There’s not a couple here – including you and Susan, if I can call you a couple – that isn’t inspiring, that people can’t brush up against when they want some “true love” to rub off on them. And there are lots more couples like us out there.

JAKE: But there’s only one guy here who’s passed a fairy-tale “test of true love,” Hammy. Because there’s only one girl here who’s been screwed up enough to make a guy do that for her.

SUSAN: Jacqueline’s right, Ham. Except that she’s leaving out what she’s done since she left here. That’s pretty inspiring, too. And word of it will get out.

HAMILTON: What’s way more inspiring than any of us is all of us, together. Without the rest of you, Jacqueline and I wouldn’t be here, this wouldn’t be happening.

JAN: Ham, get practical. What can the rest of us do to help you and Jacqueline deal with what’s about to hit you?

HAMILTON: You’re already doing it now. You’re showing people that you’re close to Jacqueline and me. We can do more of that at dinner, if you’ll all please sit with us.

ALICE: We’d be honored. But how does that help?

HAMILTON: You’re the proof that Jacqueline and I are part of something way bigger than ourselves. If the fairy-tale thing we’ve been given doesn’t help people feel that, then it’s useless.

JAN (after looking first at FRED, then at ALICE and STEVE): Ham – Steve and Fred and Alice and I were wondering whether, when we tell your story this evening, we might suggest that people back off and give you and Jacqueline some space.

JAKE: No. We can’t do that. We can’t ask people to love us enough to let me come back here, and then not love them back. What we’re signing up for tonight is to try to love a whole school as well as we can. We can ask for your help, ‘cause we can’t do it without you. But we can’t not do it.

HAMILTON: Just tell the story as a story about all of us, please.

DOROTHY: There’s a lot of that we can’t tell.

HAMILTON: So tone it down. You can tell what Wendy and Susan offered to do Wednesday, and why that meant so much me, without telling quite how wild it drove me. You can tell that Anne and Mark have held Jacqueline and me together, without telling exactly how they’ve done that. You can tell …

FRED: Ham, even with all that toned down, the whole approach you suggest risks turning a weird twist on a more-or-less familiar fairy-tale into something that most people find even weirder.

ALICE: And that would waste a lot of good spade work. Like Will’s having “The Frog Prince” read to the whole school Tuesday night … and explaining that it’s about the power of compassion to rule passion.

HAMILTON (to WILL): You did that?

WENDY: While you were off with Jan and Nancy, Hamilton. … I’d guess that your parents chose fairy tales as the evening’s theme, and set up the discussion rules the way they did, in order to give Will a chance to do that. Right, Will?

WILL (looking sheepishly at HAMILTON): Maybe. Your parents and I didn’t discuss it, Ham. About you and Jacqueline, we’re kinda past words.

(BELLA kisses WILL on the cheek. JAKE, watching, clutches HAMILTON’s hand more tightly. She and BELLA look into each other’s eyes.)

HAMILTON (softly, to WILL): Jacqueline and I are so looking forward to tonight.

STEVE: And it’s obviously mutual. And everyone here understands how you feel. But that’s exactly what you don’t want to force people who don’t understand it to deal with. We’re bucking the culture, and everybody’s expectations.

ANNE: Only because the culture has crapped out, and people’s expectations have fallen. The goal of what we’re doing is totally traditional. Committing young, staying together – that used to be the norm. Women used to get married in their teens. Men too, if they could afford to.

WILL: But we don’t get much help from society in trying to do that nowadays.

JAKE: What’s really weird isn’t what we’re doing. It’s all the changes that have made it so much harder for young couples to stay together.

MARK: Like that school lasts so much longer now. We don’t have any stability until we’re, like, thirty. High school couples break up to go to college, college couples break up to go to grad school, grad school couples break up to get jobs. It’s the new normal, it’s expected.

WILL: And like the old song says, "breaking up is hard to do." Doing it again and again scars us, deadens us. But either celibacy or a steady diet of casual sex is even worse.  

BELLA: And families are so much smaller now. The old support network, the extended family, is gone.

ANNE: From a traditional point of view, those are weird changes. Any response to them that works has to be weird, too.

HAMILTON: And being weird is how we’ve found a response. Jacqueline’s pretending to be a boy, and my pretending to be gay, have made us get even less help from society than most couples our age. So it’s made us need more help from the few people in on our secret – it’s made those relationships way more intense.

STEVE: Look, it’s good to see you’ve all thought about it. But analysis isn’t what persuades people. It’s not what persuaded any of us. And it’s not what we need to give this school tonight.

HAMILTON: I know. What we need to give them is a love story, told with love. I’m just asking you to let them feel that the story is about all of us – as much as you can without scaring them.

(LENA, now changed back into her plaid wool skirt and pink sweater under her windbreaker, walks quietly up the veranda staircase from a walkway on the lawn.)

JAN: We’ll try, if that’s what you really want. But it may not be the approach that makes it easiest for Jacqueline to transfer back here.

(LENA, unnoticed by the others, stops on the stairway landing.)

JAKE: It’s the truth. I’ll come back honestly or not at all. If this school lets me come back, it’ll be because people want to feel, not just hear, that “true love” is possible. Of course Hamilton and I can’t give that to everyone. We’ll need help. But we have help. We have you. And we’ll get more help. If that’s not good enough … then I shouldn’t come back here.

(The four upperclass boys exchange faint smiles, first with their girls, then with one another, then with WILL and MARK.)

FRED: Hamilton, congratulations. … (Lifting his cocoa mug to JAKE): _Ad veritatem_.

STEVE (also lifting his mug): _Quae virtus est_.

TOM (following suit): _Quae mulieritas est_.

(The seven boys drink – joined by SUSAN and WENDY – then offer drinks to their girls.)

LENA (walking up onto the veranda): _Ad veritatem et fortitudinem_.

JAKE (jumping up, almost spilling HAMILTON’s drink): Lena! … (She hugs LENA intensely. Locking foreheads:) Drink to me only with thine eyes, girl.

(The other students set down their drinks and stand. HAMILTON approaches JAKE and LENA but stands a bit off.)

JAKE (softly): Hamilton, Forrest’s not even here. Please don’t let him come between Lena and us.

HAMILTON (hugging JAKE and LENA): Sorry. … (Kissing LENA’s temple:) Thanks for coming.

LENA: Hamilton, I wouldn't dream of missing this.

HAMILTON (disengaging): Everyone, let’s do the introductions in the snow fort, please.

(HAMILTON and JAKE lead LENA down into the snow fort, then lean back against its wall with LENA between them, each with an arm around her. The other students gather around them.)

HAMILTON: Lena, the four people you’re about to meet have all heard about Jacqueline and me and you and Mark last summer. … Fred, Steve – Lena Rosenfeld, a first-year here, from Los Angeles. … Lena – Fred Newhouse, Jan’s guy, and Steve Appleton, Alice’s guy. As you know, Fred and Steve are both freshmen at William and Mary now, but … (He eye-cues JAKE.)

JAKE: They’ll take next semester off to be here till Jan and Alice graduate.

LENA (hugging ALICE): Oh god, that’s wonderful. …

(FRED and STEVE join ALICE and JAN in hugging LENA.)

LENA: How did this happen?

JAN: We’ll tell you at dinner. Ham?

HAMILTON (taking LENA back): Lena – wrapped around the very lucky Mr. Krudski is Bella Banks, a freshman at Edmund and …

JAKE: Will’s girlfriend. They’ve decided to stop waiting.

(LENA, speechless, looks at HAMILTON and JAKE, then back at WILL and BELLA.)

WILL (amused, pulling LENA into a hug with BELLA and him): Come here.

BELLA: Hi Lena.

LENA: Hi Bella. … Best wishes. … Scout and Grace told me a lot about you and Will this afternoon … they’re going to be so happy for you.

JAKE (joining the hug, pulling in HAMILTON): Hamilton and I and Mark and Anne already are. And not just for that. Bella’s been offered a scholarship to Rawley.

BELLA: And if I can pass the entrance exam, I’ll come.

HAMILTON: You’ll ace it.

LENA: How …

JAKE: We’ll tell you that at dinner, too. But if Anne and I can transfer here … and if you can tame Forrest, a condition my boyfriend insists on …

HAMILTON: No, dumping him would do.

(JAKE punches HAMILTON's arm – hard.)

HAMILTON: Ow! That hurt!

JAKE: Good. … (To LENA:) Then the four of us – Anne, Bella, you and I – could try to room together next year. Sound good?

LENA: I’d love to.

ANNE: So would I.

HAMILTON (taking LENA from WILL, turning her to face MARK and ANNE): Mark?

MARK: Lena, this is Anne. … Anne, Lena. (He takes LENA from HAMILTON, pulls her into a hug with him and ANNE.)

ANNE (caressing LENA’s head, looking into her eyes): Lena … I loved your candle.

LENA (eyes tearing, losing it): I loved your lover. Never again without you, Anne.

ANNE: Never again. … (She kisses LENA briefly. Breaking off:) You will never be alone again.

MARK: Never. You’ll be with us. (He kisses LENA tenderly.)

JAKE: With all of us. Because my boyfriend, if he thinks a little, knows that Forrest can’t hurt anyone much now – including me. And that I can’t grow if he doesn’t let me take any risks. … Don’t you, Hamilton?

(HAMILTON, after a pause, reluctantly nods and pulls in behind LENA.)

HAMILTON (nuzzling LENA's head): I think you’re insane. But if you need to try to save Ryder, we’ll try to help. You can room with Jacqueline.

(LENA, breaking off from MARK, reaches back to hold HAMILTON’s head, kisses him.)

ANNE (extending an arm to BELLA): A little prospective-roommate bonding?

BELLA: Sure. (She joins the group hug with JAKE, LENA and ANNE, the first-year boys enfolding them – HAMILTON behind LENA, MARK behind ANNE, WILL behind BELLA.)

FRED (giving JAN a quick kiss): Good idea. (He pulls in behind WENDY, then pulls in DOROTHY and MATT.)

STEVE (kissing ALICE): Definitely. (He takes SUSAN’s hand, pulls her into the hug with WENDY, DOROTHY, MATT and FRED, then pulls in NANCY and TOM.)

HAMILTON (breaking off, watching the upperclass students): Really?

NANCY: Who’d you think would move in with Dot and me when Jan and Alice move out?

MARK (to TOM): Nice.

MATT: Very.

SUSAN: Uh – huh. (She reaches back, grabs STEVE’s head, kisses him … and keeps kissing.)

(WENDY and FRED, watching, exchange smiles, then follow suit.)

ALICE (to JAKE, pulling in behind her with JAN, nuzzling JAKE’s neck): Looks like you’re stuck with us.

JAKE (eyes narrowing): I could do worse.

JAN (nuzzling the other side of JAKE’s head): Don’t ditch the blazer and tie.

ALICE: Pity we missed the dinner jacket.

JAKE: It’ll be back once a year. And alumni are welcome at the summer cotillions.

TOM (amused): Really?

JAKE: Best way to cut the flak I’ll take the rest of the year.

ALICE (looking at HAMILTON): Best way to do a lot of things. Clever girl.

ANNE: And she’ll have company.

BELLA: For sure.

(NANCY and DOROTHY look back questioningly at TOM and MATT.)

MATT (to DOROTHY, amused): Go for it.

(TOM nods and kisses NANCY. The two group hugs devolve into make-out sessions.

Our ever-discreet camera pans onto the watching girls in the corridor, now joined by a few boys, including STEWART. The girls exchange blanks stares. The boys, amused, pull the unaccompanied girls into hugs with their girlfriends, including BROOKE, and lead them off toward the common room. The first two bars of the Westminster Quarters play faintly.

The camera turns back toward the snow fort, panning onto the first-years, ALICE and JAN.)

HAMILTON (softly, to LENA, holding her, nuzzling her temple): We could continue this in the _Rag_ office … talk about Scout, help you get you ready for tonight … heated floors, soft mats, warm blankets, good friends …

LENA (rolling her eyes): Hamilton, I _am_ ready for tonight. I just met four of us for the first time. We’re due at the dining hall in half an hour. And you and Jacqueline do _not_ want to wade through the curious crowd inside.

HAMILTON: Mmmm … We wouldn’t have to wade through them. I have a key to the loading dock … which adjoins the print shop … which adjoins the Rag office.

TOM: You do? Fleming, you could be rich.

BELLA: He already is.

TOM: Richer.

ANNE: Why?

TOM: The girls’ school doors are locked all night. And the loading dock’s the best way in or out. … (To ALICE:) You showed it to them?

ALICE (wrinkling her nose): The loading dock? No - it reeks of garbage.

TOM (to ANNE): It’s way more discreet than any other entrance. Flanked and overhung by evergreen trees and hedges …

NANCY: To hide the dumpsters.

TOM: But there are those who love it. It’s the way guys leave in the morning before first bells at seven, Anne. The door pushes open from the inside …

JAN: Ever since the first time, after Ham’s dad took over as dean, that some guy broke a leg climbing down a gutter pipe one morning.

TOM: But nobody has a key to get in through it. With that, a guy could get in after lights-out without anybody seeing him, and without his girlfriend going down to the loading dock to let him in.

NANCY: Which is not very romantic.

DOROTHY: Because it reeks.

HAMILTON: Uh … girls, you’re kinda ruining the mood.

LENA: Good. … (Kissing HAMILTON’s cheek): Just hold me.

WILL (rolling his eyes at BELLA): Preppies. … Lena, how was your afternoon?

LENA: That’s what I came early to tell you about. I had to leave Scout and Grace before we finished our snow sculpture. But Sean and Liz showed up, and with their help …

BELLA: You spent the afternoon with Scout and my little sister?

LENA: And Forrest, until I’d gotten some idea of out how far behind he is in his coursework.

WENDY (breaking off from FRED): He’s less far behind in his coursework than it looks like. He does piles of it that he never turns in.

SUSAN (breaking off from STEVE): He likes to be punished, Lena. Not just to hurt people. … (Looking at HAMILTON:) To make people hurt him.

LENA: You’ll help me?

SUSAN: We’ll try. Forrest has his charms, obviously, but a threesome with him is not our vision of the future. And if he changes, he’ll be more comfortable with someone who’s seen less of what he’s been.

WENDY: We’ve come to care for him, but we’ve kept each other safe from him. Neither of us has ever been with him alone. If you’re going to do that … be very careful.

LENA: I will. … Thank you. Has Jacqueline told you about what the Dean’s done for Forrest, and about Finn’s getting us together with him at the diner today?

WENDY: Yes. And Bella told us about his bringing her the Dean’s scholarship offer just before that.

LENA (to BELLA): He did?

BELLA (nodding): He was sweet, Lena. Arrogant, but funny and kind.

LENA (to JAKE): Then his goodbye to you … when you left the diner … holding the door for you … “Enjoy your chat with Miss Banks” …

JAKE (looking at HAMILTON): Yes, he knew I was about to find out about Bella’s scholarship, and didn’t ruin it for me. He just thanked me.

WILL: The guy seems half-tamed, Wendy. By the time we left the diner, he was actually pleasant.

LENA (to WILL): Right after you left, he totally broke.

JAKE: What’d you do, girl?

LENA: Not me – Finn. When Finn left, he took Forrest outside and talked to him for a few minutes. When Forrest came back inside, he was … so beaten, so vulnerable … it was scary. It wasn’t just the nastiness that was gone - so was the arrogance, the aplomb, the … 

WILL: Sprezzatura?

LENA (nodding): He was, like, empty. Scout and Grace were as freaked out as I was.

(WILL and MARK stare at each other, mental wheels plainly in overdrive.)

MARK: Know what Finn said to him?

LENA: No clue. Forrest just said he’d like to try to finish our work quickly, that he needed to go do something. So when Scout, who was telling Grace about Ham and Jacqueline, got to the part involving me … I called it quits and Forrest drove us all back to the boys' school.

NANCY: Four people in a two-seater sports car?

LENA: Grace, Scout and I are becoming good friends. … Then Ryder walked off. I shouldn’t have let him, in that condition. But I wasn’t ready to be embarrassed in front of him.

TOM: Lena, don’t worry. Matt and I will find Forrest, and keep an eye on him this evening.

MATT (after getting nods from DOROTHY and NANCY): All night, if he seems to need it.

DOROTHY: And we’ll make sure he hears from us at least the part of the story that involves you.

LENA: Thanks.

TOM: Don’t mention it.

JAKE: So, Lena … Grace and Scout?

LENA: Sorry, yeh. … Scout finished telling Grace about Hamilton and you while we worked on our snow sculpture at the boys’ school. And …

BELLA: Wait. Did Grace tell our dad she was gonna be away from the pumps so long?

LENA: Relax. Scout went over to talk with your dad before we left the diner – about more than his plans for this afternoon, I think. Your dad gave us a nice cheerful wave when we drove off. And when Sean and Liz showed up, they’d already talked with your dad – that’s how they found us – and gotten his permission to take Scout and Grace to dinner. OK?

BELLA: Sorry. I should know I can trust Scout. And Sean.

LENA: And Grace. She wants so much to grow up for Scout. It’ll be a pleasure to help her do that.

BELLA: You talk like that’s a done deal.

LENA: It is. When Scout finished telling Grace the story – with me telling them both a part Scout hadn’t heard yet – Scout asked me to fetch some wire clothes hangers from his closet to be, like, the bones of Orpheus’ and Eurydice’s arms …

HAMILTON: You sculpted _that?_

LENA: Uh-huh. Wait till you see what Jan and Alice have sculpted. … (To FRED:) With a little help, maybe?

FRED: Maybe.

HAMILTON: Oh god …

LENA (kissing HAMILTON’s cheek): Scout obviously packed me off so he and Grace could be alone - otherwise he would never have asked me to fetch stuff from his room. … And since the window overlooks the lake-side lawn where we were building our snow sculpture, I could see when Scout and Grace were ready for me to come back. …

BELLA: What’d they do?

LENA: Nothing they shouldn’t have. It looked sweet. And when I rejoined them, they’d obviously committed. Grace hugged me, and thanked me for offering to take care of Scout while he waited for her, until Forrest’s ready – as though I needed thanks. And we all agreed to do that.

WILL (looking at HAMILTON): And?

LENA: And then we focused on the hard parts of the sculpture, and talked, like, about all of us – until Sean and Liz showed up, and offered to help Scout and Grace finish the sculpture, and I left.

WILL (to HAMILTON): That is so not what it looks like.

HAMILTON: No joke.

LENA: How not?

WILL: Lena, do you have any idea how much Scout likes you? Until Thanksgiving night …

LENA: I know, Will. And I like Scout just as much. But we’ve both been given people who need us more than we need each other.

WILL: So if you could wave a magic wand and make Grace turn sixteen, like, now, even though it meant being alone until Ryder’s ready for you, would you do it?

LENA: Of course.

HAMILTON: So what do you think Scout will try to do … for you?

WILL: And because it’s the right thing to try to do.

LENA (after a pause): Oh no. … What have I done?

HAMILTON: What you had to do. And Scout will do what he has to do. I frankly don’t think it’ll work, but he has to try.

MARK: And we have to let him.

LENA: But the problem’s not what happens if he fails, right? If he can’t help Ryder, nothing changes. The problem is what happens if he succeeds.

JAKE: If Scout succeeds, we’ll be there for him and Grace. We’ll get them through it.

WILL: He won’t let us.

BELLA: And Will and I, as a couple, are worse than useless for this.

ANNE: But Grace isn’t. We just have to help her make Scout let us help them.

LENA: How?

ANNE: Give her facts that she can confront him with. Anyone have some paper and a pen?

JAN (nodding): Not here. But in the _Rag_ office.

ALICE: Shall we stop there on the way to dinner? … (To HAMILTON:) Through the loading dock?

HAMILTON: Sure. … (To LENA): See? "Resistance is futile. You _will_ be assimilated."

(WENDY and SUSAN walk quickly to the table by the door to retrieve the backpack and snowmobile helmets.)

LENA: Funny. You should be focused on dinner, and on Jacqueline.

HAMILTON (to LENA, leading the group toward the steps, one arm around JAKE, the other around LENA): I am. Jacqueline and I will sled to dinner. Where you’ll be escorted by the guy I’m closest to.

LENA (whispering, almost hissing): For god’s sake, Hamilton, Mark should be with Anne at dinner.

HAMILTON (starting down the steps, grinning): Not Mark. Someone I’ve known a lot longer. …

MARK (following HAMILTON): Bella, would you walk with Anne, please? I’d like a word with Will.

BELLA (taking ANNE’s arm): Sure.

MARK (pulling WILL aside on the landing, _sotto voce_ ): What Finn said to Ryder … you think that was about Ryder’s video camera stunt?

WILL: Forgiveness for that might break him. Know of anything else that could?

MARK: No. That’s the foulest thing I’ve heard of him doing. … But if it was about that, what did he need to run off and do?

WILL: I’ve been asking myself those same questions.

MARK (starting down the steps, well behind the last of the other students): You think Finn watched that tape?

WILL (descending with MARK): If you were Finn, would you watch it?

MARK: No, I’d burn it.

WILL: Me too. But if what Finn said to Ryder today was about that … then somebody watched it. I never told Finn which student made the tape. I just said it was a real jerk doing some hazing.

MARK: Who else had the camera while the tape was in it?

(WILL and MARK reach the bottom of the steps and follow the other students onto a shoveled walkway toward the loading dock entrance.)

WILL: Only Ham’s mom and dad. At the end of the whole mess, Finn made it pretty clear that Ham’s mom hadn't watched it. So that just leaves …

MARK: The Dean … maybe checking to see if the camera had been damaged, before you lifted it from his office?

WILL (nodding): Thursday night, when we started to play whist, he said something about Finn and Kate thinking they make a great team ... like he knew that I knew, and wanted me to know he knew, too.

MARK: But he bided his time till he had grounds to expel Ryder - till he had as much control as he could possibly have.

WILL: The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, did it?

MARK: No. … So if what we’re thinking is right, then Finn must have learned from the Dean that Ryder was the one who made the video. … But Finn’s not packing his bags, is he?

WILL: No.

MARK: So today outside the diner, Finn wasn’t just forgiving Ryder, but also telling Ryder that the Dean had forgiven Finn?

WILL: And his wife, presumably. The Dean’s marriage seems strong enough to take it now, doesn’t it?

(WILL and MARK, reaching the evergreen-overhung loading dock driveway through a gap in the hedge screening it, stop. In the background, HAMILTON, surrounded by the other students, stands at the loading dock door, near two large dumpsters, fumbling with a set of keys.)

MARK: For sure. … No wonder it hit Ryder so hard. So maybe what he needed to run off to do was to apologize to Mrs. Fleming?

WILL: Or maybe to try to persuade the Dean that he doesn’t need to tell Hamilton.

MARK: You think the Dean would do that?

WILL: He could do it with Ham’s mom, and without mentioning Finn or Ryder. If you were the Dean, and Ryder wasn’t totally broken, would you leave him able to hurt your son any longer than you had to?

(MARK stands speechless, eyes widening, mental wheels once more plainly spinning.)

BELLA (holding open the loading dock door, all the students but her and ANNE having entered the building): You guys coming?

WILL: In a minute. Wedge the door for us and go inside, please. I’ve got keys for the rest.

(BELLA and ANNE exchange shrugs and go inside, wedging a pen into the door.)

MARK (recovering): Will … “totally broken” is something no one should be alone.

WILL: Agreed. 

MARK: And Ryder’s sketchy. Calling me a “future suicide” when he first met me - that’s projecting, Will.

WILL: I know.

MARK: And if he hurts himself … 

WILL: _Facilior descensus Averno?_

MARK: Yeh.

WILL: He won't - if he's gone to the Flemings'. They're feeling what we feel, and they know what we know.

MARK: But what if we're guessing wrong? What if he hasn't gone to the Flemings'? 

WILL: Then we need to find him. 'Cause you're right - if Ryder goes down, he'll take Jacqueline with him. And with her, all of us.

MARK: So if Ryder's not at dinner, I'll slip off to the restroom and phone Ryder. If he doesn't answer, I'll phone the Dean, tell him Ryder's gone walkabout, and ask whether he knows where Ryder is. If he doesn't, he'll start a Ryder-hunt. If it's still on after dinner, Anne and I will join it.

WILL: So will Bella and I. … (Taking MARK’s arm, ambling toward the door:) But if we don't need to do that, what are your plans for tonight?

MARK (accompanying WILL): Anne and I might check on Jen and Brandon. We haven’t seen them since yesterday morning.

WILL: You know, there’s room for three couples at the guest cottage.

MARK (shaking his head): Anne’ll be here next weekend. But if you’d like to come to the Inn early tomorrow morning, with Jackie and Ham, Jen’ll open the spa for us.

WILL: Thanks.

MARK (taking the pen out of the door, opening it): We’ll talk more at dinner. … But first, when we get inside, do me a favor?

WILL (entering): Sure, what?

MARK (following WILL in): Try to distract Ham for a minute. I need a word with Jackie.

 

*       *       *


	24. Scene 20 - Raven at my window

INT - RAWLEY BOYS’, STAIRWAY LANDING ABOVE FRONT ENTRANCE. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (NIGHT).

 

(RYDER, right cheek bruised, now wearing only jeans but wrapped in a blanket, stands on the stairway landing above the main entrance, looking out an open window. SCOUT, in parka, gloves, and snow boots, approaches the school door from the driveway.)

SCOUT (looking up): Ryder! If I’d known you’d be there, I’d have rented a motorbike.

RYDER: Calhoun, if I’d known you were coming, I’d have brought a camera.

SCOUT: I hope those oversights won’t impede our romance.

RYDER: Not at all. Nice boots.

SCOUT (laughing): I’m yours. … (He enters the building, removing his gloves as he navigates through a foyer full of discarded winter footwear. Removing his boots:) How was dinner in hall?

RYDER: I missed it.

SCOUT (opening his parka): So did I.

(SCOUT steps into the corridor and looks toward the common room, from which Nick Drake's "[Pink Moon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXnfhnCoOyo)" plays softly. Its lights are dimmed, the furniture pushed against the walls; a fire blazes in the hearth. It’s full of student couples seated on the floor, most of them under blankets, the boys mostly shirtless, most girls wearing half-open boy’s dress shirts, all listening to JAN and SUSAN, who sit wrapped in blankets on a footstool near the hearth. TOM, shirtless, and NANCY, in a boy’s flannel shirt and blanket, are entering the common room from the hallway.)

SCOUT: Quite a crowd.

RYDER: Joining it?

SCOUT: Only briefly. Too close to the story. You?

RYDER: I heard some.

SCOUT: How much?

RYDER: Through the cotillion. I’m digesting that.

SCOUT (nodding): It’s a lot to digest.

(In the common room, NANCY and TOM, taking seats near JAN and SUSAN, call their attention to SCOUT. JAN, smiling at SCOUT, nudges FRED, nestling against her legs under her blanket. FRED, in an open shirt, stands, kisses JAN’s head, then walks toward SCOUT.)

SCOUT: Fred! When did you get here?

RYDER: Yesterday, by train from Scarsdale.

SCOUT: With Steve?

FRED: Of course. He and Alice are at the girls’ school, with Dorothy and Matt and Wendy.

SCOUT (clasping FRED’s arms): Welcome back. … (Softly:) And thank you.

FRED (smiling): Our girls felt loved.

SCOUT: They were. … (Jabbing FRED:) But they want you and Steve. And you guys are being jerks.

(SCOUT pushes the larger, stronger, but unresisting older boy toward the rear wall of the corridor. Behind SCOUT, JAN, watching, rises and walks toward them, wrapped in a blanket over a half-open boy’s dress shirt.)

SCOUT: Jan and Alice are beautiful, they love you, and you’re hurting them. You should be with them. What the hell is more important?

FRED (backed against the wall): Nothing. You’re right. Steve and I should have deferred matriculation – stayed here for a fifth year, or taken a gap year.

SCOUT: So why didn’t you?

JAN: Because Alice and I wouldn’t let them. They offered, we were dumb and proud. … (Wrapping an arm around FRED's waist:) And Will and Ham already beat on Fred and Steve about this earlier today. Stop, please.

SCOUT: No. The separation’s eating you and Alice up. Fred, they wept half the night, and the other half they made love like there’d be no tomorrow … sometimes both at once. You can’t …

FRED: Scout! Steve and I will be here from January through spring term. We’ll take next semester off school.

SCOUT: Oh thank god …

(FRED and JAN gently pull SCOUT in with them, nuzzling affectionately. RYDER, on the landing, watching with quiet amusement, turns back to the window.)

SCOUT (softly, relaxing into FRED): So, when did you and Steve decide this?

FRED: We didn’t. We never wanted to leave, we’ve always wanted to come back. Alice and Jan decided yesterday, right after they left you and Will. The story they heard Wednesday softened them. But you and Will cracked them.

SCOUT (to JAN, moved): Really?

JAN: Scout, you and Will helped Alice and me understand how much we’ve been hurting our guys … and ourselves. Only two guys who are as close as they are could do that.

SCOUT (after a pause, slowly breaking into a grin): Hamilton sandbagged you.

JAN: He’ll never admit it, but yes. He understands.

SCOUT: I know. And Will and I heard from Anne yesterday how much what he and Mark have means to her and Jacqueline. … You’ve told Ham? And Will?

FRED: This afternoon, at the girls’ school. With Bella and Jacqueline, and Mark and Anne.

SCOUT: Perfect.

FRED: Not quite – you weren’t there. But nearly perfect, for Steve and me. Alice and Jan told us, last night, the story they’re telling everyone this evening. So to meet Jacqueline, Anne, Mark and Lena this afternoon …

SCOUT: You’re pretty inspiring yourselves, guy. To stand in for you was an honor, not just a pleasure.

(JANE and FRED exchange faint smiles.)

FRED (softly, to SCOUT): What you and Lena are trying … with Grace … (Shifting his eyes toward RYDER:) And him … it sounds difficult and delicate, but worthwhile.

JAN: Don’t hurt Grace. Or Lena. But if Lena takes him before you and Grace are ready …

FRED: We’re here for you. After Christmas, all four of us. Till then, Alice and Jan. Or just Jan.

SCOUT: Thanks. … Excuse me a moment. (He walks into the entryway, takes off his parka, sweater, and shirt, hangs them on a wall peg, slides out of his loafers, then returns to JAN and FRED.)

FRED (pulling SCOUT back in, his forehead and JAN’s both touching SCOUT’s): Better.

JAN: Much. … How was dinner with Sean and Liz?

SCOUT: A perfect first date with Grace. Both girls had just heard this story for the first time. And for Liz and Sean to spend part of their first night together with us …

(The front door opens. STEWART PRESCOTT and BROOKE Sumner enter, STEWART in a half-length tan corduroy coat and grey slacks, BROOKE in a red down vest over a flannel shirt, jeans and leather boots.

STEWART (removing his gloves, wiping his feet on the inside entrance mat): Hi, Scout … Jan, Fred.

SCOUT: Hi Stewart, Brooke. What’s up?

STEWART (removing a pair of shoe rubbers): Changing venues.

BROOKE (removing her boots): The more of the story we heard, the more the girls’ school seemed … a tad too sedate.

JAN (grinning): A few other couples seem to have felt the same way.

BROOKE (to FRED, kissing him on the cheek): Again, welcome back.

STEWART (kissing JAN on the temple): And nice work. At dinner, at the girls’ school … (Glancing toward the common room:) … here.

SCOUT (to FRED and ALICE): You two were at the dining hall this evening?

STEWART: Stars of the show. You should ask them to tell you. … (Taking BROOKE’s hand:) Brooke and I’ll be back when we’re properly attired. … (He leads BROOKE up the stairs. Pausing on the landing, to RYDER:) Congratulations on your new job. You’ll be good at it.

(RYDER briefly rolls his eyes at STEWART, then resumes gazing impassively out the window.)

BROOKE (kissing RYDER on his unbruised left cheek): And you might like it.

(STEWART and BROOKE climb the stairs and exit into the upstairs corridor. SCOUT, ALICE and FRED, watching, turn back toward one another.)

SCOUT (to JAN, after glancing at the common room): Do you have time … to tell me about dinner?

JAN: Nancy, Tom and Susan can do without us for a while.

SCOUT (glancing up at the landing): Mind if Forrest joins us for this?

JAN (after exchanging a soft smile with FRED): Our pleasure.

SCOUT (leading JAN and FRED to the foot of the staircase): Forrest?

RYDER (turning): Yes?

SCOUT: Jan and Fred are about to tell me about dinner in hall. Hear it with me, please?

RYDER: Fred?

FRED (smiling, extending an arm toward RYDER): Come.

RYDER (walking down from the landing): Thanks.

FRED (pulling RYDER in): You’re missed in the common room.

JAN (wrapping an arm around RYDER): Especially by Susan.

RYDER: I’ll be back. She’s wearing my shirt.

(SCOUT taken aback by RYDER's bruised face, looks at JAN, who shakes her head slightly. FRED takes JAN’s blanket off her, wraps it over SCOUT’s shoulders, leans back against the large newel post and lower balustrades of the stairway, and pulls JAN to him, her back against his front. JAN pulls SCOUT and RYDER close, wrapping her arms around them.)

SCOUT (nuzzling JAN’s neck): So, dinner?

FRED: It was meat loaf, but it was memorable. Our better student cooks were in the kitchen, along with some faculty wives, giving the dining hall staff the day off. They wanted to show what they could do.

JAN (tilting her head back to look at FRED): Tease. … (Turning back to SCOUT): Matt and Dorothy, Tom and Nancy, Steve and Alice, and Fred and I shared a table with Ham and Jacqueline, Mark and Anne, Will and Bella … and Lena and Dr. Hotchkiss.

SCOUT: Dr. Hotchkiss?

FRED: Hamilton would never have let Lena be there unescorted.

JAN: And he clearly wanted them both there, together. "My fairy godmother and godfather," he called them.

RYDER: From the cotillion, that rather fits.

SCOUT: All too well. … Where were Susan and Wendy?

FRED: They waited our table.

SCOUT: What? This wasn’t an old-form night … and they’re not first-years.

JAN: Ours was a table of couples. Including three close pairs of couples. Waiting it was their way of signaling, to everyone there, that they want what we have.

SCOUT: Clever. … So Dr. Hotchkiss spoke to introduce the guests?

FRED: No, Mark did that. Anne, Jacqueline and Ham were his guests, and he insisted on paying for Bella, Matt, Steve and me, too, saying he wanted to introduce all of us.

JAN: And he did it smartly. He started with Matt, saying that the next time he and Tom show up with a snow plow, the other guys here would thank them to stay long enough to lighten their shoveling.

FRED: Since everyone had already heard about their prank, that got a laugh. Then Mark announced that Steve and I would be back at Rawley next term. That was news.

JAN: And it got cheers all round. All four of us were really touched.

FRED: Then he introduced Bella, announcing her scholarship and her taking up with Will today.

JAN: More cheers and applause … especially from the girls.

FRED: Then Mark introduced Anne, adding that she’s the roommate of the young lady sitting beside Hamilton, who’d gotten him and Anne together.

JAN: The response to that was thunderous. Everyone finally understood what Mark and Ham are.

FRED: Finally, saying he’d left the best for last, he introduced Jacqueline as a first-year at Grottlesex who’d attended Rawley summer term, and who owed this school an explanation of the way she did that, and of why she’s at Grottlesex now.

SCOUT: You’re kidding. He put her on the spot like that?

JAN: It was the right call. She had to speak for herself, a little. Hamilton clearly was surprised – and a little pissed. He’d never have agreed to let her do it. But Mark obviously had warned Jacqueline.

FRED: And she rose to the occasion: “I attended Rawley last summer as a boy,” she said, “because I felt so unlovable that I wanted a miracle. I wanted a straight guy to fall for me despite thinking I was a boy. A Rawley guy gave me that miracle, and then another. He stayed with me despite learning that I was a badly screwed up girl who’d have to leave Rawley.”

RYDER: The hall must have been gobsmacked. I was, at lunch.

JAN: You could have heard a pin drop. She went on: “He helped me heal, letting me stay here through summer session, till I was well enough to be away from him. Then he made me leave, so that I could be a girl again. And he’s pretended to be gay until now, hoping that, in time, you could forgive me – because I’d like to come back here next year. His name is Hamilton Fleming, and I love him.”

SCOUT: And?

FRED: After a shocked silence, the kids started knocking their knuckles on the tables. First one, then another, then most of them.

SCOUT: Wow. Isn’t that, like, saved for the last lecture of a term by an especially well-liked teacher?

FRED: Or just a particularly brilliant lecture. But it wasn’t at all what we’d expected … which was to be either swarmed or spurned.

SCOUT (shaking his head): No, the first reaction – if you don’t hear it in bed – is awe. It was for Will and me, too, last August.

RYDER: Really?

SCOUT: Forrest, you’re not the only one who feels humbled by this. Or changed. … (To JAN:) Was that it?

JAN: No. Then the faculty got in on it. Most of them were there. The head table was full.

SCOUT: But that only happens on old-form nights - like at Homecoming, or at the start of each term. Most of them have families. … (Suddenly worried:) Oh no. … The Dean had already told the faculty?

FRED: No, Dr. Hotchkiss told them. He sent the whole faculty an e-mail Thursday evening, asking them to his house for tea yesterday. Ham said he'd asked Dr. Hotchkiss to do that Thursday evening, when he phoned Dr. Hotchkiss to arrange for Jacqueline to visit him today, and learned that he'd already heard the story from Anne and Mark. 

JAN: And Dr. Hotchkiss said he'd been happy to oblige, since the Dean couldn’t let the faculty hear it after the students, and they didn’t want to make the Dean tell them about his own son, and Dr. Hotchkiss had heard more of the story than the Dean had heard from Will two weeks ago - like about Anne and Mark. … But there's more to it than that, isn't there?

SCOUT: Like what?

JAN: Like whatever made you say, "Oh no," just now, when you thought the Dean had told the faculty the story. Presumably the same thing that made Ham unwilling to talk about what went on at his house Thursday evening, and made him decide not to tell the Dean part of the story until tomorrow, after everyone else has already heard it. And that part isn't about Anne and Mark, is it?

SCOUT: No, it's not. I just heard it this afternoon, from Lena. 

JAN: Scout - Hamilton obviously doesn't want that part told the way the Dean wants to tell it, and is hiding that from the Dean until it's already been told to everybody Ham's way. And your "Oh no" makes it obvious that you think Ham's right. Wanna tell me what’s going on?

RYDER (starting to disengage): Excuse me, I should leave.

SCOUT: Stay. I’m not going to answer Jan’s question anyhow. … Jan, you’re a good newshound. Good enough to guess what part of the story the Dean hasn’t heard yet, and why. But you really do not want to know for sure. And I’m not at liberty to tell you. What I can tell you is that I ran into Jacqueline and Ham Thursday evening on their way from Ham’s house to the girls’ school … and they were so happy that they wept in my arms.

JAN (after exchanging a glance with FRED): Got it. Thanks. … Ask you again at Ham’s dad’s funeral?

SCOUT: You won’t have to. I plan to deliver the eulogy.

RYDER: Talk to me first. Whatever the Dean's trying to do for Jacqueline … that Hamilton won't let him do … it’s nothing compared with what he's doing for me.

JAN (pulling RYDER’s forehead to hers): Forrest, you are so beautiful tonight …

FRED (caressing RYDER’s head): Truly, guy. Alice, Jan, Steve and I had planned to pull in Susan and Wendy tonight, to thank them for something … but we can’t offer them anything half so good as what you are right now. If you want them … or if you’d like to join us …

RYDER (shaking his head): No. … Thank you. … So at dinner, the head table was full. And?

JAN: And you need to let people love you. … But at the head table, none of the teachers had taken any food.

SCOUT: But that means nobody had taken any. Faculty at the head table are served first.

JAN: Right. All of us but Ham and Jacqueline walked to dinner, and arrived a few minutes early. When they sledded in, exactly on time, the whole hall was waiting for them.

RYDER (amused): Without knowing what they were waiting for.

JAN: Most of them had some inkling. We’d staged a little show on the girls’ school veranda to prep them.

FRED: And as the kids were rapping the tables, the teachers stood up, left the head table, and sat down at tables with the kids. A lot of their spouses were there, holding seats for them. And Dr. Perkins, the senior full-time faculty member, said: “Miss Pratt, Mr. Fleming, the head table is yours, and your friends’, this evening.”

SCOUT: No … Has that ever happened before?

FRED: Not in my time. Students get invited to the head table sometimes, as an honor, but for the faculty to vacate it for students … no, never.

SCOUT: You didn’t go to the head table.

JAN: Of course not. But the kids started chanting, “To the head table,” until Jacqueline stood up and spoke again to decline.

RYDER: Oh god … the poor girl. Once was enough.

JAN: She was in tears, of course. She pulled Hamilton up with her, and spoke with her arm around him. “Hamilton and I have nothing to teach anyone, except about how not to fall in love,” she said. “No guy should have to do what Hamilton’s done for me, and no girl should make a guy do that.”

FRED: “But,” she managed to add, “If we could use the head table as a serving table, Bella, Anne and I would like to serve you all dessert and coffee. We’d like to meet each of you … if we may.”

SCOUT: God … she’s so smooth now. And last summer, she was all rough edges. Fleming’s changed her so much that she’s wasted on him.

JAN (laughing): There’s politics outside politics, boy. And yeh, the hall kinda went nuts at that, but then they settled down and let us eat dinner in peace.

FRED: Again, with a little help from the faculty. They and their spouses insisted on waiting table for the students.

SCOUT: Like an old-form dinner stood on its head.

FRED: Exactly. No one missed the point.

SCOUT: So did the girls pull it off, with the dessert and coffee?

FRED: Very nicely. Dessert was excellent – blueberry or cherry pie, made with tinned fillings, of course, but nicely spiced, and a welcome change from pumpkin or mince … Ow! … (He kisses JAN’s head.) … And served with kisses. Jacqueline, Bella and Anne must have kissed most of the guys in the school – and Ham, Will and Mark most of the girls.

JAN: As did you and Steve, serving the coffee and tea.

FRED: Just being supportive. … (To SCOUT:) Our whole table was up there with them, helping, talking. Hardly anyone sat down to eat dessert. We just turned it into an after-dinner reception.

JAN: And everyone was incredibly polite. I heard not one prying question. Just “welcome” or “welcome back,” and best wishes, and offers of help.

FRED: Until our first-years finished serving dessert and left. Then all the kids swarmed the rest of us with questions.

JAN: Which we promised to answer in the common rooms after cleaning up dinner. And here we are.

RYDER: Impressive. But don’t tell me everyone was won over. I’m not the only bastard at this school.

JAN: Past tense for the self-deprecation, please. … Yes, some kids didn’t join in the table-thumping, and left without taking dessert. But only a few are bastards. Most are nice, just … conservative.

RYDER (disengaging): Thanks for the story. But if you’ll excuse me, I need to think. Tell Susan I haven’t forgotten her, please.

FRED: Will do. And you’re welcome.

(RYDER returns to the landing, resumes staring out the window. SCOUT, JAN and FRED exchange shrugs.)

JAN (to SCOUT): Fred and I should get back to the common room. And we understand you have plans for this evening.

SCOUT: I do.

JAN: Again, thank you.

(JAN kisses SCOUT intensely, FRED enfolding them.)

RYDER (softly, turning from the window and knocking on the banister): Heads up!

(JAN and SCOUT break off. FINN, in his trench coat, comes in through the school’s front door, beneath the landing. He spots SCOUT, JAN and FRED, shoots them a reproachful glance over the rim of his glasses at them while scraping off his boots. They disengage slightly, SCOUT wrapping JAN’s blanket back around her.)

FRED: Hi, Finn.

FINN (approaching the group, extending his hand to FRED): Good to see you again, Mr. Newhouse.

FRED (shaking FINN’s hand): Thanks. It’s great to be back.

FINN (loosening the neck of his coat): How’s Virginia?

FRED: Warmer. We row on water year-round.

FINN: I’ve heard. … (Softly:) I hope you three know what you’re doing.

FRED (deliberately, placing JAN’s hand in SCOUT’s): I’m not here, Finn.

(FINN looks coldly at SCOUT, then back at FRED, nods.)

FINN: But you will be soon, I hear.

FRED (putting his arm around JAN’s waist): Yes.

FINN: Welcome back. If you and Steve would like to help coach crew, I could use a day or two a week off that.

FRED: Thanks, we’d like nothing better.

FINN (jerking his head toward the common room): Does that require my attention?

JAN (shaking her head): It’s under control.

FINN: Blankets?

JAN: “Winter intimate.” Matt and Tom heard about Hamilton and Jacqueline from Nancy and Dorothy Thanksgiving night. When they came back here today … the boys’ lacrosse team set the sartorial tone for the evening.

FINN (to FRED): Yours seems to be the only shirt that’s still on a guy.

FRED: The burden of being an alumnus. Jan’s making do with one of Tom’s.

FINN (rolling his eyes): The dress code’s waived, but we have private rooms for a reason. Remind them of that if necessary, please. … Do I need to check in on the girls’ school?

JAN (again shaking her head): Much more decorous, by design. A safe haven for the unattached or inhibited, where they can hear the same story. And it’s a love story, Finn.

FINN: I’m aware of that, Miss Pierce. Get back in there and keep a lid on it, please. I won’t be far, and Ryder has my cell number, if you need me.

(JAN and FRED exchange amused looks.)

JAN (softly, kissing FINN on the cheek): Your loathing of hypocrisy is showing.

(FINN glowers at JAN.)

FRED (wrapping an arm around JAN): Whoever she is, we look forward to meeting her. Goodnight, Finn.

(FRED and JAN return to the common room. FINN turns his glower on SCOUT.)

SCOUT (throwing up his hands innocently): I said nothing. … (Touching the side of his neck): Lipstick. … Are we done here?

FINN: Go.

(SCOUT grabs his clothes and shoes and bounds up the stairs, stopping briefly on the landing.)

SCOUT (to RYDER): Be right back. Wait for me?

RYDER: Where would I go?

(SCOUT scurries up the remaining stairs, exits via the upper-floor corridor. FINN rubs the side of his neck, looks at his lipstick-stained fingers, raises the collar of his trench coat, walks slowly up the stairs to the landing, stops next to RYDER. He looks at RYDER’s face, turns RYDER’s chin for a better view, winces.)

FINN (softly): Kate?

RYDER (shrugging): Better out than in.

FINN: You alright?

RYDER (nodding): The Dean won’t tell Hamilton.

FINN (briefly clasping RYDER’s forearm): Thanks.

RYDER: I didn’t do it for you.

FINN: Thanks anyhow.

RYDER: Go be with your guest.

(FINN nods, goes back down the stairs into the entryway.)

FINN (putting his boots back on): You know, the common room’s warmer than that window.

RYDER: Don’t worry, I’m not going to jump.

(A patter of running feet. SCOUT, a blanket thrown over one shoulder, appears at the top of the stairs.)

RYDER: That was fast.

SCOUT (running down the stairs, wrapping himself in the blanket): Wanted to catch Finn before he leaves.

FINN (coldly): You have. Why?

SCOUT (joining FINN in the entryway): To wish you goodnight.

FINN: Good night, Mr. Calhoun. (He starts toward the door.)

SCOUT (moving as if to open the door for FINN, while in fact blocking it): Finn, Thanksgiving night, Charlie Banks, at Grace’s request, lent me his copy of _Little Women_. It’s a good book, Finn. I intend to take good care of it. And neither Lena nor Jan would have it any other way.

FINN (after sucking in a breath, pausing, nodding): Sorry.

SCOUT: For wanting to protect a troubled girl? Finn, that’s what we’re celebrating tonight.

(FINN smiles. He starts to say something, stops, bites his lip. SCOUT raises his eyebrows toward the landing above them. FINN nods again.)

SCOUT (opening the door for FINN): My pleasure. Good night, Finn.

FINN (clasping SCOUT’s shoulder as he goes out): Thanks, Scout. Goodnight. … (Turning, after a few paces, and looking up at the window:) Goodnight, Forrest.

RYDER: Goodnight, Finn. And thanks.

(FINN smiles at RYDER, turns, walks out into the driveway toward the school gate. SCOUT shuts the door, runs a hand through his hair, leaves the entryway and walks up the stairs to the landing. He leans back against the windowsill next to RYDER, facing him, letting his blanket hang loose from his shoulders.)

RYDER (looking out the window at FINN): He left a woman to make sure I’m alright.

SCOUT: Yes.

RYDER: And you?

SCOUT: My motives are entirely ulterior. … Like the view?

RYDER (looking briefly at SCOUT, then back out the window): You’d do, in a pinch.

SCOUT (turning RYDER’s chin toward himself): What happened to your face?

RYDER: I offered someone an apology. She accepted it.

SCOUT (releasing RYDER’s chin): That bad?

RYDER: Worse.

SCOUT: That’s why you left us as soon as you’d driven us back here?

RYDER: That and a curt dismissal. When you started telling Grace the parts of the story involving Lena, she made it clear my presence wasn’t wanted.

SCOUT: Now you know why.

RYDER: Yes. … She’s smashing … and modest.

SCOUT (after a pause): Forrest … you’ve never tried to hurt me. Will, yes. Hamilton, yes. But not me.

RYDER: Feel neglected?

SCOUT: Just wondering why.

RYDER: I’ve just been out to muck up this school – your country’s already a shambles. And to make you drop the weight you’re hefting wouldn’t be much fun anyhow.

SCOUT (grazing the back of RYDER’s hand with his fingers): So you’re not afraid you’ll try to hurt me. That’s a start.

RYDER: What’s your game?

SCOUT: Same as Hamilton’s – Never be lonely. Never be misunderstood. Never be frightened.

RYDER: Your roommate says that’s impossible.

SCOUT: My roommate is deeply ironic. Life can be perfect. You just have to be … little. Young. Reborn. Like you today, Forrest.

RYDER: Calhoun, I am anything but perfect.

SCOUT: Perfection’s never what is. It’s becoming what could be. It’s growth, possibilities, exceeding expectations. And nobody at this school has grown so much as you have today since one of us found the guts to kiss a frog at the summer cotillion.

RYDER: And I am not Hamilton.

SCOUT: Hamilton wasn’t, either. He grew. He loved.

RYDER: I can’t.

SCOUT (softly, grazing RYDER’s stomach with the back of a hand): I think you can.

RYDER (arching an eyebrow): Gay pity sex?

SCOUT: Not pity, Forrest. Attraction. Didn’t you hear what Jan and Fred told you?

RYDER: That was pity, too.

SCOUT: No, it wasn’t. And Fred’s right. Why don’t you spend the night with Susan and Wendy?

RYDER: You already know why.

SCOUT: You don’t trust yourself not to hurt them. Know any girls you’d trust yourself not to hurt?

RYDER: I’ve never been with a girl without trying to hurt her. I don’t know if I can. Worse, I don’t know whether I’d enjoy it.

SCOUT: You can, and you will. But until you believe that, the choices on your menu seem limited. And since you trust yourself not to try to hurt me, I’m the chef’s recommendation. But how gay this has to be depends.

RYDER: On what?

SCOUT: On whether you trust me not to let you hurt a girl, if you and I were together with one or two. I think I could show you the door if you started messing with a girl’s head, don’t you? And if you ever do to a girl close to me what you did to Caroline, you will be booted, whether the Dean wants to boot you or not.

RYDER: I feel seduced already.

SCOUT: It’s nothing I wouldn’t do for any guy I’m close to. If Fleming hurt Jacqueline, or Krudski hurt Bella, I’d have his ass in a sling. They expect no less, and they’d do the same for me. And when any of us kisses another guy, it’s a pledge to do that – to help him love his girl well. (He leans in toward RYDER.)

RYDER (pulling back): You have no clue what I am. … You like Grace, that was obvious today.

SCOUT: So?

RYDER: You know what I did to her last summer?

SCOUT (shrugging): She was asking for it.

RYDER: That’s why I never gave it to her. I let her show she was willing, then blew her off. More than once, sometimes in front of other people.

SCOUT (pulling away): You bastard.

RYDER: Exactly. And she was already walking wounded. Care to suggest how to make that right?

SCOUT (after a pause, moving back close to RYDER): Sorry. … Just be her friend – and mine.

(STEWART, now only in jeans, a blanket over one shoulder, and BROOKE, in a mostly-unbuttoned boy’s dress shirt, reappear at the top of the stairs, hand in hand. Seeing SCOUT and RYDER, they exchange grins and walk down to the landing.)

STEWART (wrapping his arms around SCOUT and RYDER): I’ve heard that if you both try to turn the other into a girl, neither of you changes.

BROOKE (pulling in opposite STEWART, hand-grazing RYDER’s abdomen): But you two will need each other. Liz phoned me before dinner.

SCOUT: I was with her when she did. I hope you and Stewart are acting on what she told you.

BROOKE: We will, tonight.

SCOUT: Best wishes.

STEWART: And to you and Grace. When do we get to meet her?

SCOUT: Soon, thanks.

BROOKE: Did your dinner with Sean and Liz go well?

SCOUT: Very well. Jan and Fred just told us about yours. Sounds memorable.

STEWART: Even more memorable for Brooke and me. When Mark, Ham, Will and their girls left the hall, they pulled us out with them. Apparently Liz and Sean had told them we’re fond of Liz.

SCOUT: That you’ve waited so that Brooke could help Liz deal with Mark’s horsecrap. And that Liz and Sean really like you.

BROOKE (smiling at STEWART): It’s mutual. … (To SCOUT:) But where are Ham and Jacqueline?

SCOUT: Not here.

BROOKE: Scout, they may need some help tonight.

SCOUT: What’s wrong?

STEWART: After dinner, Bella and Will thanked us and excused themselves, and Jacqueline and Ham sledded off, but Anne and Mark walked us to the boathouse …

BROOKE: Where Ham and Jackie were waiting for us. And all four of them snogged us a little – which, after we got them to stop apologizing, was lovely. And Jackie said something so sweet …

RYDER: Go ahead, torture me.

BROOKE: She said the best help of all is the help you don’t even know you’re getting.

STEWART: Then we got a rowboat into the water and Jacqueline and Ham rowed Anne and Mark to the town dock. When they got back, they seemed surprised Brooke and I were still there – as if I wasn’t going to wait five minutes to help Ham put the back boat up. And after we’d done that, he and Jackie, uh, kinda ...

SCOUT: Lost it?

STEWART: You know them.

SCOUT: I know how guilty and grateful they feel.

STEWART: Scout, it was intense. And they hardly know us.

SCOUT: One small act of kindness can mean a lot. Your helping them put the boat up meant you’d really forgiven them. And meant even more precisely because you hardly know them.

BROOKE: Well, that seems likely to change. Stewart and I have a date with them for the first Friday after Christmas break. And one with Mark and Anne the Friday after next. But we think Ham and Jackie shouldn’t be alone tonight.

SCOUT: Don’t worry. Liz and Sean told me at dinner that Jacqueline and Ham will spend some time with them this evening.

BROOKE: Oh thank god … that’ll be so good for Liz.

SCOUT: And for Jacqueline. And I’m pretty sure she and Ham spend the night with Bella and Will.

STEWART: I’m glad. Thanks.

SCOUT: Again, best wishes. I’m sorry I didn’t make this possible weeks ago. I should have taken Liz to see Jacqueline.

BROOKE: But then Liz and I wouldn’t be so close. And Stewart and I wouldn’t be part of this story.

STEWART: And we should go hear the rest of it.

BROOKE (kissing RYDER on the cheek): Hang in there. It’ll get easier.

(STEWART and BROOKE, holding hands, descend the staircase and walk through the corridor to the common room.)

RYDER (to SCOUT): Alright. Snogging me on the staircase is not the path to your Senate. … (Closing the window:) My room or yours?

SCOUT: Maybe both, later. But for now – the library?

RDYER: Lead on.

SCOUT (starting down the stairs): Forrest, do you want a future with Wendy and Susan? Do you want to pull in another guy, make it more than a game?

RYDER (following SCOUT): No. Neither do they, I think.

SCOUT: But you owe them.

RYDER: I owe a lot of people.

SCOUT: It would be kind to let them feel how different you are now.

RYDER: I’m not that different.

(SCOUT and RYDER, reaching the foot of the stairs, turn toward the common room.)

SCOUT: You’ve made the choice they’ve been trying to get you to make for months. Thanking them for that is something you should do before you get involved with another girl, isn’t it?

RYDER: One of many things.

SCOUT: What’s the best way you could thank them? What would they like most?

RYDER: For me to bring in another chap I’m tight with – if I were that tight with anyone.

SCOUT: Your entourage from last summer?

RYDER: Guest students from other schools. Gone now. You know my rep here.

(SCOUT and RYDER pause in the doorway leading from the corridor to the library. NANCY’s voice, describing JAKE’s restaurant date with HAMILTON in July, is faintly audible. SUSAN waves to them.)

SCOUT (returning SUSAN’s wave): Ever try to give them anything like that?

RYDER (blowing a kiss at SUSAN): Of course not.

SCOUT: You could bring me in with you tonight, if you’d like. Just this once, to help you thank them. And you could help me thank them for something.

RYDER: For what?

SCOUT: Something they did Wednesday for Ham and Jacqueline, who can’t really thank them properly.

RYDER: The same thing Steve and Fred want to thank them for?

SCOUT: Almost certainly.

RYDER (wincing): That’s why Fleming was suddenly so protective of them Wednesday evening?

SCOUT: Yes.

RYDER: What did they do?

SCOUT: I’d rather tell you in bed. They want two close guys, so before we get together with them …

RYDER: As I said, your room or mine?

SCOUT: Mine, but not alone. Hear the rest of the story from me, Forrest. Including the part about Wendy and Susan. From me and a girl I’m close to. A girl I promise you I won’t let you hurt.

RYDER: Who?

SCOUT: Lena.

RYDER: You know where she is?

SCOUT: Hiding, given her role in the story.

RYDER: Understandably. Half the blokes who hear it will want to jump her. … Where?

SCOUT: In my room. Let Lena and me tell you the rest of the story there. Will won’t be back tonight.

RYDER: No.

SCOUT: Not all night, just until Susan and Wendy are done in the common rooms – two or three hours. And just storytelling and affection, if that’s all you’re comfortable with.

RYDER: Scout, you are not sharing your girl with me.

SCOUT: She’s not my girl, Forrest. She’s yours, if you’ll have her. If you don’t want to share her, then learn to trust yourself not to hurt her.

RYDER: And you’re not giving her up. Pratt and Fleming hurt her. Don’t hurt her again.

SCOUT: I’m not giving her up. And I’m not hurting her, I’m helping her. She wants you.

RYDER: Bollocks. That’s pity. I’m a wreck.

SCOUT (clasping RYDER’s arm): Inside, tosser. To the genetic mutations section. (He pulls RYDER into the library.)

 

 

INT - RAWLEY BOYS’, LIBRARY. DAY 5 - SATURDAY (NIGHT).

 

(SCOUT pulls RYDER’s to the aisle in the stacks nearest the common room, pushes RYDER against the shelves.)

SCOUT: Forrest, you’re an emotional virgin, trying, for the first time, to love. That’s hot. Rebirth is hot. … (Pressing himself against RYDER:) Lena’s wanting to be part of yours is not pity. I want in on it, too, and if it’s not clear that what I’m feeling isn’t pity, then yes, let’s move this to your room.

RYDER (looking down): I take your point.

SCOUT (backing off slightly): Good … ‘cause I’d much rather do that later tonight, with Susan and Wendy helping, after you and I’ve given them our best.

RYDER: So would I. … But I’m not ready for Lena.

SCOUT: I know. And until you are, I won’t let Lena be alone – she’s had too much of that already, and Grace is too young to mess with. So I’ll take care of Lena until you’re ready.

RYDER: I may never be ready for her.

SCOUT: You will be, sooner than you think. And … if you’d like … the three of us could be together, till you trust yourself not to hurt Lena. You’d be ready faster that way. Then I’ll leave and focus on Grace.

RYDER (after a pause): Why would you do that?

SCOUT: That’s a question you soon won’t need to ask. But I’d like it very much, if you would.

RYDER (placing one of SCOUT’s hands on his chest): Virgins don’t know what they’d like. But if I must be deflowered – I trust you.

SCOUT (amused): It’ll be less scary after the first time. Let’s get you past that tonight.

(The two boys lock foreheads, each exploring the other’s torso with one hand, holding his own blanket up with the other.)

RYDER: How much of this have you discussed with Lena?

SCOUT: While I was up in my room just now, I suggested we tell you the story together, and that I help you wrap it up with Wendy and Susan tonight.

RYDER: And she’s willing to give you up tonight … to help me.

SCOUT: To help free you up for her? Very willing.

RYDER: But you haven’t discussed sharing her with me.

SCOUT: I didn’t need to. Lena got the implication of our telling you the story together – just like you just did. I had to tear her off me to get back to Finn before he left.

RYDER: I don’t deserve her.

SCOUT: As she says, nobody deserves anything. Just love her well.

RYDER: And you.

SCOUT: No, loving me is just a fun by-product.

RYDER (grimacing): I've been such a rotter.

SCOUT: Yes, but now you're not. So let’s love some girls, shall we?

RYDER (nodding): What’s the plan?

SCOUT: We go into the common room, talk with Susan, and invite her and Wendy and her to join us when she and Wendy are done with story-telling. They’ll talk by phone. If they accept, I’ll ask them to phone me when they think they’re nearly done. When they do, you and I’ll leave Lena, and …

RYDER (wincing): They’ll accept. But that’s wretchedly rude.

SCOUT: Lena wants you well parted from them. She wants them to be your friends, and hers. Let her in, let her help you – and start now.

RYDER: Alright.

SCOUT: Then I’ll walk Wendy here from the girls’ school, while you set up your room.

RYDER: My new room’s cramped.

SCOUT: It’s the new you, and it needs christening. I’ll bring a couple of sleeping bags and some wine, we’ll light a fire … it’ll be romantic. Have anything to eat?

RYDER: Lots. I stocked up on the way to Bella’s. … You’ve heard I called on her, and why?

SCOUT: Yes.

RYDER: Nicely done, that.

SCOUT: The donor’s anonymous.

RYDER: Understood, lover. … What about Will?

SCOUT: He’s with Bella.

RYDER: He worships you. Won’t this hurt him?

SCOUT (releasing his blanket, playfully nibbling RYDER’s neck): I’m not planning to leave Will out of this. Are you?

RYDER (laughing, holding up SCOUT’s blanket): Calhoun!

SCOUT: What? You’ve teased Krudski mercilessly for five months. Time to pay the piper.

RYDER: Bella? Lena? Grace?

SCOUT: I’m sure they’ll be happy to help. You’re the prodigal son, and you’re gorgeous. Get used to it.

RYDER (pulling SCOUT off him, smiling): Enough!

SCOUT (serious now): You don’t need me. You’re not going to hurt anyone. And we both know why.

RYDER (releasing SCOUT): Hamilton.

SCOUT (pulling his blanket back over his shoulders): Uh – huh.

RYDER: Stay with me, please. Until I’m half as sure of that as you seem to be.

SCOUT: I will. Come on, let’s go talk with Susan. Lena and I have a story to tell you.

 

END OF ACT IV

[For ACT V, click here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1438567/chapters/3025738).

 

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